Speedy met the Singletrack!

FUN!!!!

First time with Speedy, my mountain bike, on singletrack! Matt gently prodded me to try it out. It was great! In some ways easier than the moderate and easy trails. Matt taught me how to handle uphills (keep your butt in the seat!) and I got a lot of good practice at tight turns. Haven't tried much in the way of obstacles yet. I'll get there. Can't wait for the next ride!

Today was my first time running on pavement for a long time. Yes, I biked and ran today (running first, biking immediately after). I wanted to do a trail run today, but decided I needed to get on the pavement with a road half marathon coming up in a month! Glad I did because my joints definitely felt the difference. My knees were not happy about the run. They ached in different places. I wanted to do 6 miles, but ended up stopping at 5.6 so as not to harm my knees! And I took it really slow. No running tomorrow. Saturday will be my next run and it'll be back on the trails. I better plan on one day a week of pavement running to get used to it again!

Speedy rocks. Will definitely be biking again tomorrow.

Shoulda Known Better

Nice and easy trail run today! Ran with my Matt, our friend, Jaime and Shamus, the pooch! Per Garmin, did 6.3 miles in about 55 minutes.  That puts average pace at about 8:45, when I coulda sworn I was doing 9:30s. I was really making myself go sloooooow. I had to. I stupidly ate peanut butter before my run, which I know better NOT to do. PB pre-run is a no-no. It just sits there in my stomach like a rock and mocks me. Fortunately, this time it was merely a mild annoyance. It didn't ruin my run. I told my husband if he saw me reaching for the PB jar before a run ever again to slap my hand. Hard.

PB pre-run = Disaster

PB post-run = Bliss

It kind of bums me out because PB is one of my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews), along with whiskers on kittens. I was hoping to make PB&J sandwiches one of my go-to foods for ultra training. Gotta cross that one off the list. I do well pre-run with fig newtons, cereal bars and bananas, so I have a few things to work with so far.

It was warm today, much warmer than any previous run this year, but the heat didn't seem to affect me as much as I thought it would. Being in the woods helps with that! Yet another reason trail running rocks! (No pun intended.)

I'm planning about 17 miles this weekend. Really looking forward to it. Having runs to look forward to makes the work week go by so much faster. I'll be running with RUT again on a trail I've never been on. Sunday can't come fast enough. :-)

Running with the RUTsters!

I was so looking forward to today's run with my new RUT (Running Fit's Ultramarathon Team) friends, that thunderstorms on the drive to the park didn't even dampen (haha!) my spirits.  It stopped raining by the time we got there, but the rain left plenty of mud for us on the trails. It was great!

Snakes were well represented on the trails today. They weren't exactly moving very fast to get out of our way either! It wasn't even cold out! Slackers.

Matt and I decided to do as close to 15 miles as we could. Four of us had Garmins. None of them matched.  LOL!!! Also, none of them were even close to the mileage on the map. My Garmin said 14.4 miles, Matt's was 14.0, Mark had us at 14.8 and I can't remember what Andrew said. The map said we did 15.9 miles!! I just uploaded my Garmin and called it an estimate. heh! Considering we ran 2 hrs 45 mins on a hilly, technical (muddy!) trail, I know I got in what I needed to get in, regardless of time or distance. I'll take it! Great run!

One of the best parts were the cookies Farra baked for us. Mmmm.... She's one of those "artistic" bakers who works sans recipe, so there's no way to duplicate. 

This was a great mental run for me as well. I was getting pretty tired being on my feet so long, even if we weren't moving that fast. Granted it was faster than I anticipated! They were not slow pokes!  However, I needed to push past the fatigue and just keep going. That's the kind of training I need for a 50 miler. Part of the reason for the fatigue was due to leaving my GU in the car. I thought we'd be back at the car about halfway through. We ended up staying out on the trail longer, and I needed to refuel! I had Accelerade in my hydropack, but it wasn't enough. I know better now! Take the GU whether you think you need it or not!

I had such a blast today, I'm already looking forward to next week. Can't wait! 

Surefire Diet Plan!! ;-)

I discovered a way to lose those few pounds I allowed myself to gain over vacation in Boston last week. Open my car door right into my jaw so hard that it hurts to talk and hurts even more to eat. Yep. That'll do it. Lots of ibuprofen and chicken soup for me!

At least I did it in the parking lot of the gym after a good cross-training workout, right? (1 hour on the stationary bike and 20 minutes on the elliptical for a "tempo" workout).  Although, now that I think about it, it almost seems like punishment for working so hard. Hmmm...

I've been driving for 20 years and have never done this before. How could I be so clutzy!? Now it is moving into my head and giving me a headache.

And, yes, I'm that short. ;-)
As long as it doesn't affect my running...       <--- very appropriate

Long trail run tomorrow with my RUT buddies!! Can't wait! Will fill ya in later!