On the road again...

This morning finds me back in the car, headed to Wisconsin for the third time this year. This trip is more business than pleasure. Though we'll be staying with good friends and celebrating their twins' birthdays while we're there, the main reason for our visit is to check out a couple of colleges that are looking at N. Our four days will include two college tours, one volleyball camp, a birthday party, and lots of driving. I'm lucky to have friends who live in the right part of the state, thus continuing my summer Tour de Mooch. We certainly couldn't have afforded most of this year's travel if we had to pay for hotels.

Training:

Saturday I ran 9 miles, my longest run since the marathon. It was sloooow, especially the beginning and end, but not miserable. The worst part? I neglected to do any blister prevention and had the pleasure of putting my blistered feet into some very cute and very uncomfortable heels that evening for my reunion. Ah, the price of fashion. Totally worth it to look good. :)

Yesterday I ran the 6 miles my training plan called for yesterday morning, though I made it an easy run with friends rather than the tempo run it was supposed to be.

After a break to get the car's oil changed and take my progressively less enthusiastic 7 year old to go do some work in my classroom, I fit in an 18 mile ride last night. I used the first and last miles as warmup/cooldown and did sprint intervals for the bulk of the ride. Wow, that sucked. I'm not accustomed to working that hard on the bike; it's too easy to coast...likely one of the reasons for my abysmal showing in the crit (didn't read about that? Check back one post.)

Knowing I'd be in the car all day Thursday and that I wouldn't have time to run my easy 2 miles, I decided to run them when I got home from my ride. Unfortunately, D took the opportunity to run with me when I offered. "Whose pace are we going to run?" he asked. "Whichever is slower," I told him. Still, we went out and ran the first mike in 9:15--not slow OR easy for me. That rotten kid has run maybe once this year and wasn't even breathing hard! Meanwhile, I was about to have a coronary. The secon mile felt much better even though it was a little faster (9:05ish). I even was pushing my pace a little in the last few blocks. Or thought I was. With one block left, D said, "I'm going to pick it up a little," and promptly took off like a rocket. Oh, to be 18 again!

Catching up:

My shoulder is finally feeling mostly normal again. I'm thinking in the next week or so I can resume strength training. Yea!

I have a few blogs in the pipeline, including answers to Adam's last minute Q&A questions, my next Photoshop victim, and (just bc I want an excuse to post a cute picture of me instead of the usually sweaty and haggard ones) a brief post about my 20th HS reunion. Stay tuned...