run this amazing day

I think my favorite thing about this giveaway is the huge stack of mantras that I have collected.  Just thinking through them all should get me through any race.  Some favorites: Amy says, "Fatigue Is A Choice."  This weekend Amy is running the Eugene Marathon, and I know this one will be on her mind in those last miles.  (She's headed out there with Beth - these two ladies are primed and ready to crush this race.  Go wish them luck!) Several people said their mantra is "HTFU."  Could someone please tell me what that means?  I know, I'm old and not with it. Sarah with an H is trying to like, "Be Bold" as her mantra.  I actually kind of love this one! ohmmommy is coming back after an injury and has two: "Strong glutes, little steps" (this one rings particularly true to my weak ass) and "Embrace the pace."   Ultrarunnergirl writes that her mantra is "Relentless Forward Progress."  I actually thought o...

1. This is the strangest training cycle I have ever been in.  It basically goes like this: "What did I do yesterday?  How do I feel today?"  Honestly.  Sometimes it goes further into " Did I swim yesterday?  Did I ride?  Hard or easy?  What did I lift, top or bottom?  Okay, do the other thing today." but in general I'm not even thinking that much about it.  I'm not mapping out workouts at the beginning of the week like I usually do.  I make some dates with friends for rides/swims/runs, and then kind of fit everything else around it.   I've been alternating hard rides with recovery rides for the most part, and I'm trying not to swim two days in a row if I don't have to.   I'm allowed to run every other day, but that's essentially the only guide I have.  I'm listening hard to my body.  And surprisingly enough, I feel like I'm getting in the quality workouts I need and (generally) the recovery time I need.  Who knew...

It's that time of the year again. Trying to convince Graham to go in deeper than his ankles and the car smells like swampy dog time.

Right now I'm halfway through a serious block of high volume training, and I just can't talk about running, biking, or swimming any more because it's all I'm doing.  I think I've even gotten past the point where I'm hungry all the time and moved into permanently exhausted.  8 more days until taper! So, if you remember the first house project post , when we moved in, the house was a complete mess.  The family that had lived here before it stood empty had done quite a bit of DIY themselves, extremely poorly.  There are almost no straight lines in my house.  The floors are uneven, the walls aren't straight, and nothing matches up evenly.  The bathrooms all had similar fixtures and the tile was in okay shape, but in general it was all just a little beat up. There was no door on the bathroom. Oh, and it was also rocking this hot mess: I spent about a month painting almost every weekend, just to get rid of the nasty white walls.  I picked out a very ...

It all started Thursday morning, when I got back in the pool for my first pool run in a few weeks.  Everything felt fine, and I had an amazing swim afterwards.  Later in the afternoon I noticed that my hip flexor and psoas on the bad side were tight, and my back was hurting.  I measured myself and my SI joint was out of alignment.  It took two tries to get it back in alignment, and it ached the rest of the day.  I stretched and released my psoas, but it still felt tight. Friday morning I took it very easy - just a short ride - but my back was still aching.  I measured myself again after the ride, and I was out of alignment again.  Over the past 5 weeks, I've been measuring myself often.  At first I was out every day.  Then every other day, then every few days, and I've gotten down to only having to adjust myself every week or so as my body has gotten better at holding things in place.  So to be out 3 times in 24 hours was perplexing. ...

I was lucky enough to be able to be asked to review a Road ID.  I got to pick one out and design it.  I chose the FIXX ID, which is actually the first style of Road ID ever made.  It's an engraved tag on a chain that looks a lot like the military dog tag.  I chose the "triathlete" design for the front and put my name, emergency contact information, and mantra on the back.   Faith, not fear. I love it.  I chose it instead of the bracelet or shoe tag because I can also wear it while cycling and I don't have something else next to my Garmin on my wrist.  I also ride with an ID but I'm pretty bad about running with one, and it's easy to put this on when I'm heading out the door. Luckily, I also get to give away a Road ID of your choice!  I'm going to make this simple - you need to be a follower & leave one comment.  Tell me what mantra you would put on your Road ID.  That's it. For a bonus entry, you can tweet about it, but do not le...

1. I did my first brick of the season yesterday.  Spoiler, this means I ran!  I rode home from work, changed into my running clothes and headed right back out.  The last time I ran in Virginia it was 40º out.  Yesterday here it was 90º out, and there isn't a lot of shade around my house.  My body was in shock, which made me kind of pouty. I did have some aching in my glute while I was running, but I was concentrating really hard on trying to activate the right things and my overall gait.  No pain after, so I'd say I'm firmly on the path to healing! That said, I rode 6.5 miles and ran 3 and my heart almost exploded.  Feeling pretty uneasy about riding 56 and running 13.1 in 3.5 weeks, but there isn't much I can do about it so I might as well put it right out of my head.  Sparkly things!  Puppies! 2.  I'll be jogging the Crystal City 5K on Friday night (Me!  Running!  I'll be running!  No, the novelty has not worn off yet),...

This is where Molly sits most of the day.  She watches cars drive by and barks at most of them. Sometimes I help her.

If I took the time to write a post detailing everything I did this weekend, it would 728435 pages long and you should probably just go and read some recaps from people who actually ran the race.  So I'll just hit the good stuff. I spent a LOT of quality time with my favorite running redhead: and my new other favorite running redhead: Actually, Boston was basically just redheads on parade. I ran a 5K with some fabulous girls.  I WAS RUNNING THAT WAS ME!!! I ate and drank my way through a great deal of Boston (shocker).   Yes, there is icing on all 10 of my fingers and chocolate in my teeth. I met tons of kickass ladies in real life that I've spent many months texting, emailing, twittering and chatting with - and they were far more fabulous than any words could do them credit. And I stood on the sideline and watched thousands of runners run the last steps of their Boston Marathon, their victory lap, their A race, their no-one-understands-why-we-do-it race. ...

With one - no, two - exceptions, I haven't run in over a month.  Way back in early March, I signed up for the B.A.A. 5K, thrilled to be signing up for a race where I could get to run with a ton of awesome friends. I also had thoughts about trying to PR the 5K after the emotional roller coaster of my current 5K PR .  Then I got injured, and I didn't really think about this 5K until after the National Half , but was hoping to be able to run it - slowly - by the time it came around.  After last week's ridiculously bad test run, I decided I would just walk, and started trying to convince everyone else to walk with me.  Power-walking capri-wearing trash-talking runners in disguise!  Who wouldn't want to do that? The last good run I had was actually with one of my favorite running redheads , so it seemed appropriate that she was the first one I was able to talk into walking the 5K.  I also figured that since I had never walked a 5K, this would be an automat...

1. My allergies are so bad right now, I would happily claw my eyeballs out with toothpicks to make that feeling go away.  Oh, and I'd like my voice back, Darth, but it was fun to trade for a while. 2. The sound of a ringing cell phone annoys me.  Especially if it's my own. 3. If you are over 300lbs and your midriff is showing at the gym, I'm going to judge you.  I mean, I'm pumped that you are motivated, but I'm still going to judge you every time. 4. When I lived in Boston for a year, I did not go watch the marathon.   5. I still don't know how to correctly chop an onion. 6. I listen to music while I ride my bike.  I KNOW. 7. I didn't like beer until a few years ago. 8. I have cellulite on the backs of my legs.  It's why I never wear shorts or skirts.  I spend most summers in capris. 9. I was really excited to change my last name when I got married. 10. I am unable to blow my nose without making a really loud noise. 11. I...

1. Hi y'all!  First of all, the blog.  If you added the new address (http://www.runthisamazingday.com) to your RSS/Google reader yesterday, you WILL get an error saying nothing exists there.  That's because the blog is still here, at blogspot.  (Pause for everyone to say, "OoOOOHHHH!")  So you'll have 2 RTAD links in your reader for the next week or so until I get it moved, and then I'll let you know when you can remove the http://runthisamazingday.blogspot.com link from your reader.  Sound good?  Okay, good.  For now, keep both, because I'm going to Boston (!!!!) this weekend and I'm not entirely sure when I'll get around to moving it, but I want to make sure I don't lose anyone in the process!  Stay with me, friends! 2. Injury update.  Still unable to run, but making progress and things are healing.  The current troublemaker is the glute med, which apparently hasn't been working for quite some time now.  So I'm working on ...