I'M BACK...A Buddie I Forgot and One I've Fallen Out With!

OK, so yes, get all of your jokes out, your laughs, etc.  Yes, he finally beat me!  I have been enduring all that I deserve about the huge upset that took place on June 12, 2011.  Marc clocked in at an amazing 1:57:51 for the North Shore Half-Marathon.    I don't think I was as challenged by him beating me as I was about him running a sub two half.  How did it do that?  I guess fast don't lie! :)

Enough about him, I had a pretty rough race, I felt fatigued, dehydrated and just out of breathe for the whole race.  I ran sub 9 minute miles until about the 5.5 mile marker (with Marc) and then I just decided I needed to finish as best I could.  I actually didn't feel my tendinitis until about mile 9. I finished in 2:04 and some change.

I really didn't run much last week, I got new shoes which I am afraid of because the salesperson took me down from full motion control to stability.  I am now in a Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11.....we shall see...I did a couple of short runs in them without compliant and I finally got a Nuu Muu!  If I could ever find my friend again, (Running,) maybe I'd wear it!  I did do six miles at the trails with my running crew, however I felt like I was in a wind tunnel with all the wind going in the opposite direction of me.  The buddie I forgot last post, Daisy (the NEET guy's albino boxer,) felt just like I did during the run....she laid down and refused to go anymore in the middle of the trail!  That's what I am talking about.  Well, I'll give myself another week of weight training and cross-training and see if my running buddie wants to check in with me like old times!  Oh yeah, this pony tail is getting old, plus I think my hair is breaking off, gotta look for a new do! Until the Springbok finds a new running hair do or at least starts running again on a regular........

Pre-Race Rituals...

OK, its 10:10 pm and I really should be in bed, but as always the excitement and nervousness that a race generates for me has me wide awake!  You'd think I was really doing something, like winning part of the $10,000 pot that is available to the runners in the top categories...Instead I am only running against me.  I AM MY BEST COMPETITOR! 

Well, since I am full of energy, I thought I'd share the laundry list of things I do to prepare for a race.  No I don't believe in superstitions, however, I have not veered from these practices this year and so far, I have taken 6 minutes off my previous time in every race I've run and completed.  (BTW, that's big in the race world!:)  Also, the ponytail is hanging in there.  It just might work.  OK, let's see.... (in no particular order)

• Drink half my body weight in H2O two days and one day prior to the race...Gotta stay hydrated (believe me, my body knows when it has enough water, and when it doesn't.  During those times I feel like quitting every mile)
• Full body yoga stretch, throughout the week, but specifically the day before in the sauna at the gym (at least 20 minutes or more if I can stand the heat.)
• Create my Ipod play list for the race
• Eat a high-carb meal (tonight was pasta and shrimp with tomato basil sauce...yum-yum,) garlic bread and salad
• A total coffee cleanse (won't give all the gory details...inbox me if you want to know the real deal!)
• Shave, shave and shave.....(Somehow I think this makes me faster, doesn't Mike Phelps do that? :)
• Prepare my travel bag and any injury equipment (tonight I am preparing my K-T tape for my tendinitis
• Check my garmin and my Ipod and charge them if need be
• Set the coffee pot...(Gotta get 16oz. of Joe in 30 minutes prior to race)
• Try to get in bed in a decent hour (never works!)

Well, that's it I think...oh and now...BLOG...BLOG...BLOG!  Keep me and hubby in your prayers!.....Until the Springbok races again!

Well.....hum!?!?

Don't know what to think about this upcoming race.  Of course, I am still gonna show up, but....  well, I laid off Sunday, did cross training and weight training on Monday.  Swam and lifted on Tuesday and today I tried a tempo 30 min run on the TM.  I felt pretty good until I got up to training pace (8:47 min mile).  Felt a slight pain in the left side of my left shin.  Decided to walk on an incline the rest of the way.  Don't feel it now, gonna rest & IBP and see what happens.  Gotta run though found the cutest Aspire outfit to run in at Sports Authority on sale.  Of course, its about the fashion statement too!!:)  Also got my hair lathered in gel, pudding and hair sprayed up into a nice neat pony tail thanks to Momma Andrea!  I think I can rock this style for a while, just forgot my scarf at the gym today is all.  Gotta try and slick it down again.  Oh the troubles of a black woman running! :)

MY RUNNING BUDDIES!

Let's see here....My running buddies are something else...A big hill, another big old hill, mosquitoes, a toe ring, horse poop, horse poop smell and then my favs...Tequila Sunrise, an Artist, a Short Techie, a Tall Techie, a NEET guy and last but most importantly, my lovely, handsome hubby.  The combination of these buddies made for great running today.  At 5:30am, the heat hit me and my cornrows like a dryer at a car wash!  We completed a great 8 miler in my favorite place to run these days, which was supposed to be a 2 hour run, thanks to my big mouth!  Me nor the heat were interested in running that long today.  Thanks to Marco Speedy Gonzales I ran an 8:19 mile pace during mile 6 of the run.  He just came out of no where and blew by me.  I am convinced he is a great rabbit! I felt great despite the heat.  HEAT for me is a great running partner for some reason, except for those moments when your breathe and air meet and both refuse to give in to the other and you panic momentarily, thinking, "I am gonna pass out!"  I did suffer a minor injury, I have self-diagnosed as peroneal tendinitis.  Plan to nurse it for a few days and be ready for my HALF.  No excuses, I will beat him, even if I have to cut my sore toes and my left leg off below my knee.  OK, really, my husband is running quite well.  I have to keep talking trash because I feel a !#%*-whooping in the near future.....Well, not so near! :) Anyway, got my braids down on the way home from the trails....and after taking Aerin to a bday party and hosting a dinner book club, my head still looks the same way it did when I left the trails!  I see a wig in my definite future.  Alright, I'm out of here, gotta rest my eyes some time. I am 18 hours into my 40 hour weekend of festivities, you know what, a baseball hat will do fine for church tomorrow.  God has seen my head and He hasn't given up on me yet!  :).....Until the hobbling Springbok hits the road again.....

"Ok, can I fit one more thing in today?"

So, hello to anyone who thinks enough of me to read this blog.  Its 10:50pm.  My 4-year old has been in bed for well over an hour.  She has the sniffles and is coughing periodically, but has managed to stay in bed without my assistance tonight.  My husband is in front of his favorite or second favorite 42-inch pass time, as I sit in front of mine in the bedroom.  We manage to share 2-3 minutes of time together periodically throughout the evening during commercial breaks.  He had a tough day at work and its best to let him be tonight.  I worked 6 hours and ran a 6 mile tempo run in the trails that I love.  The weather was great and my gear was pretty comfortable.  However, I wasn't completely comfortable running since I took a wrong turn and did a new trail by my mistake.  It wasn't bad, except I happened to run smack dab into two muddy unavoidable yucky puddles.  My shoes, (not my trail shoes, because I left them and my garmin at home by yet another mistake) are wet and black from the mud as well as my socks and feet after the run.  I listened to my Window Seat play list (Shout out to Ms. Badu! I averaged about a 9:20 pace on my Nike Plus, which happens to always be 20 seconds slower than my garmin, especially on the trails, so maybe I hit my race pace.  Got the North Shore Half Marathon in approximately a week and two days.  Not sure if I am ready to hit my sub 2:00 time, but I am sure that I still plan on beating my husband!  And lastly, my cornrows that my cousin so gracefully did for me four weeks ago, which I loved by the way, have had it!  They are puffy, loose and fuzzy!  Plus, my scalp feels like tiny ants are crawling all over it, marching in all different directions at one time!  I know they need to come down, but I dread having to do something to my needing a perm, but don't want one head. The creamy crack is calling! Probably will sport my big and curly half wig this weekend, but what happens on Monday to the head, the Lord only knows...cornrows, touch up or a braid out?....to be or not to be!  Too many decisions....I just want to RUN!....Maybe I should shave my head?.... Until the Springbok leaps again.