run this amazing day

So far, my very loose plan of doing lots of easy jogging and not much else this month has been going well.  It's making me happy.  I feel really chill about it, like it's okay to just let loose and not worry right now.  I've done one double run day and taken a few days off completely, and none of it is bothering my OCD (or my body) in the slightest.  Since this was going to be my last weekend in DC, Sarah and I decided late in the week to sign up and run a 10K.  A chance to visit with Hains Point one more time before I left.  I had absolutely zero interest in running hard, and just wanted to spend the morning around runners for (probably) the last time in this city (please pretend you can't see how fat I've gotten since the wheels fell off my training okay thanks). We parked far enough away to get in a good walk/jog warm-up to the start.  After a few clothing changes and a kiss from Graham, we were off. I realized in the car that I completely did...

Our house officially goes on the market today. It's real, and it's good, but it's also very sad.  We got married here.  Graham peed on the Christmas tree skirt here the first day we brought him home.   We've had millions of parties: poker, BBQs, or even just dragging people in the front door and forcing them to eat things.  I became a triathlete here, an ironman; my husband, a marathoner.  Every inch of this house has been painted, I know the sounds of the heat roaring on and the neighbors fighting in the driveway yet again.  I know every step of the 3.1 mile loop, the 4 mile loop, the 8 mile loop, how many times I have to go around Hains Point to hit 20 miles, I can turn off my alarm clock and be in the pool six minutes later exactly.  And now we are moving on.  

Welcome to the off-season!  Please leave your bicycle outside. I've made a lot of training decisions in the past few days.  After hearing from a few people that they were doing thirty runs of thirty minutes (or longer) in thirty days, I've decided to join them AND make my own rules.  So here they are.  I will run thirty different times this month.  A run/walk counts if I do even a few minutes of running as long as I am moving for thirty minutes.  I will take days off whenever I need them (cough yesterday cough).  I will double up a few times to make up for the days off (cough today cough).  If a run is longer than thirty minutes, I will count the time towards the grand total of thirty minutes multiplied by thirty times at the end of the month (i.e. leave myself a giant loophole for all the days I skip).  I will not wear a watch, a heart rate monitor or any other electronics while doing these runs.  I will run with friends at their pac...

As usual, zero recollection of goals I set a month ago. October Goals Big changes.  DON'T BE SCARED.   Far, far bigger than I thought. Do not overeat at the first stop on the cupcake tour.  PACING!!   It was weeks before I could look at another cupcake.  Okay, days.  DAYS. At least one PR (spoiler, attempting a new distance).   A heap of life stress turned into the sniffles turned into my first-ever DNS.  No PRs for me this month. Keep doing the "let's mash our workouts together and sort of capture the general spirit of the training session" rides with your girlfriends.  So much more important than nailing intervals.   Some of this, but all of my girlfriends are solidly in the off-season (as am I) so we captured the general spirit of several bottles of wine instead of rides. Do not die in trapeze class (hope Sonja isn't reading this one).   Yes! The new vegetable thing.  Or at least don't go two days without eating some...