I have been having some trouble with mine. Our yoga instructor told us to take our practice to the edge, but not past it. I think I went past it a couple classes ago. It has been effecting my running this week. I missed a second long run which makes me really disappointed. I am now within a month of my Disneyland Half and I had high hopes for getting back to a near PR time this year. I am hoping to get out for a longer easy run tomorrow. Maybe around 7 or 8 miles. I will need to get up early tomorrow to fit it in because I have a meeting at 9:30. Wish me luck. 🙂

If you been a reader of my blog you might have noticed I NEVER do back-to-back runs unless they are only like a 1 mile run.   I have only made 2 exceptions and they involved Disney races, so of course I just had to!  In the past I did it because I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my FIRMs for back-to-back runs and I wanted to conserve the extra wear and tear on my joints caused by back-to-back runs. 

Runner’s World Smart Coach had me add back-to-back runs starting this week.  On Wednesday I have my speed or tempo run followed by a 2 mile easy run on Thursday.  In the psat I would have ignoed this and moved on, but I am following through with it this time.  I am considering it the beginning of my training for the American Odyssey Relay.   I figure Step 1 – runs on back-to-back days.  Step 2 – more than one run on the same day.  Of course Step 2 doesn’t have to occur for some time.  I figure I will start throwing in 2 runs on the same day every other week starting some time in February.  I have plenty of time to plan that out though since it is only…what…July?  I will probably start working on the training rotation that takes me from October through the WDW Half Marathon the WDW Princess Half Marathon and the American Odyssey relay at the end of September. 

In just 2 hours I will be sitting on my mat in the yoga studio preparing for my first regular yoga class.  Up to now I have only been doing the Beginner Yoga classes.  The biggest reason for the change is scheduling.  The Beginner classes are at 8 AM or 8 PM.  8 AM gets knocked out because of that whole work thing getting in the way.  The evening classes set me up for getting home around 10 o’clock and with needing to take a shower I don’t make it to bed till almost 11.  After the shower I am wide awake so I lay there staring at the ceiling for almost an hour before nodding off to sleep.  For the record, this granny-like-20-something (4 more months till I have to call myself a 30 something o_O) likes to have her head hit the pillow between 9:30 and 10 o’clock.  If I don’t I have a somewhat zombie appeal to me the next day. 

I have to remember this evening that I need to keep my yoga practice within the limitations of my own body.  Yoga practice is a very personal thing and everyone has different capabilities restrained within their own body structure.  Just because the teacher is the crazy-bendy-woman that was the assistant instructor from the Beginner Yoga series I took doesn’t mean I have to be crazy-bendy too. 

When I got home from work yesterday I kept hearing strange noises. First I heard what sounded like a siren when I turned on the fossit in the kitchen. Then I heard extra voices when I was watching TV. I hit mute thinking my cell phone may have been ringing, but it stopped. I just shrugged it off and went about my business.

I walked over and grabbed yet another 100 calorie box from the stash I picked up at Target. On the way back to the couch I noticed a large water bottle in my trash can. Oh the horror! I picked it up out of the trash can to move it to the recycle bin and I noticed a cell phone was hiding underneath it. I called my dog walker’s mother right away to tell her what I found. So my total obsession with Recycling saved the day.

Finding the cell phone did resolve the extra voices I was hearing…well at least those that aren’t in my head. I did however notice the siren noise again later when I filled the dog’s water bowl. I am going to need to have a plumber come out because I also noticed that that nice clicky noise that I have associated with the pressure regulator in my plumbing has stopped. Luckily it is just me and I won’t be flushing the toilet on myself while I am in the shower anytime soon, so I shouldn’t have to worry about having any water pressure issues.

I haven’t been blogging because I have been concentrating on taking care of me.  Even now I am a bit afraid that blogging about it is going to jynx me.  What have I been working on?  My eating of course. 

I am finally getting back into my groove and am feeling like I have control over myself.  So much so that I even brought veggie chips and ice cream back into the house.  These are two trigger foods for me.  Once I have one it is hard to stop.  Having these things in the house will definitely be a challenge, but I think I can handle it. 

I also have been in a great groove with my half marathon training.  Even though I haven’t been sticking to the times on my rotation and have fallen short I have been running on the scheduled days.  On the days I fell short on my distance it has been because I am listening to my body.  I have been continuing my tempo and speed training sessions.  I am still trying to figure out how to approach the tempo and speed runs in a way that I am moving at a faster pace but not wiping myself out so much that I can’t finish my cool-down while still running.  I am sure it will come with time.

Eco message for today:  I think driving an SUV makes you ineligable to plaster a bumper sticker on it that states “Green is Good”.   Yes this is directed to you Mr. Xtera driver.

I spent my 4th of July morning the same way I have for the last 3 years. It all started with the alarm going off at 4:45 AM. Yes, 4:45 AM on my day off…I am crazy. If you don’t know that by now then I must be leading you astray with my blogs. I will need to work on that…

Anyway! I had my customary peanut butter and banana bagel, smeared myself in cancer causing sunblock, slipped into my running skirt and then hopped in the car. Usually Dad drives me to all of my races, but I have driven myself to this one in the past. Since the race started at 7 AM I decided to let him off the hook for picking me up at 5:45 in the morning. My first stop was the gas station because I didn’t even have enough to get myself to the start line.

I arrived at the start line area shortly after 6 AM. I went in to hand in my registration form. I don’t register for this one ahead of time because you never know what the weather will be like. I have run it in the heat, humidity and rain before, so I am not sure what kind of weather would actually keep me away from the race. Snow maybe? In July?

I returned to my car to stash my race shirt and grab my waste pack. I looked through the contents of my wastepack and decided I didn’t really need to run with my license and my VISA so I stashed the pack back in my car and pulled out the two things I knew I would need – my key and my cell phone. Since this is a point-to-point and not an out-and-back I need to have the ability to call my father in case I get lost finding my way back to the car. The pocket in my running skirt is supposed to be cell phone friendly so I stuck my phone and key in it.

Time is pass quickly so I do a little stretching and go line up with the rest of the runners. The race is off and we start off running across the parking lot and then making a left to a downhill section of the race. We aren’t even half way down the hill when I feel like leg suddenly get lighter. I hear a crash and a bounce, bounce, bounce and someone yell “Cell Phone Down!” I turn off course and turn around to see my cell phone in the middle of the pack of people running down hill. I yell “Watch out, coming through” as I make my way out to retrieve my cell phone and hop off course again. Then I merge back into the race. My rythm is knocked off a little but it doesn’t take long to get it back.

I feel pretty good. Trying to run on the edge of my comfort zone. Before we hit the half mile point we pass the finish line, which I notice has been moved from previous years. We pass the 1 mile walker as the lead runners are coming in the other direction around mile 2. This is a very nostalgic section for me because this is where we pass my grandfather’s old house. We split off to complete a short loop to turn us around in the other direction. On this loop we pass over several cross streets on of them called “Dunran”. The humor of the moment was not lost on me. I am sure everyone thought I was off my rocker as I started laughing, but then again refer to paragraph 1.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I cross the finish line, grab a bottle of water, and make my way to my car. I call Dad to let him know I crossed the finish line and was on my way home. I told him the clock appeared to be around 41 minutes when I crossed the line. Since this race has not timing chips our times are based solely on the gun time. I didn’t get a PR for this course or distance, but considering the cell phone mishap I am still very happy with my time.