Checkin in!

Where we last left off was me rebooting. The reboot process involved me not blogging anymore. I'm not sure why, just wanted to try everything. Well everything worked and I've been running my little heart out for the past month and a half or so. I'm nine weeks out from the Chicago Half and while I put together a new schedule, I've been pretty willy nilly about it. For my "long runs" on the weekend I actually started at 9, went down to 8, went down to 6, jumped back up to like 10 but split in half. I'm all over the board. Not to make excuses or anything but it's sooooooooo hot. I'm seriously NOT digging training for a Half in the summer. Even with all the snow piles and ice patches and frozen lungs, there's something to be said for winter running. You feel hardcore about it. In summer you just feel gross. I don't feel hardcore after running 8 miles in the blazing sun and sweltering humidity. I just feel sweaty and over it. The funny thing is that I totally let running fall by the wayside during one of two most pleasant running seasons, Spring. Boo on me. And once Fall rolls around it'll be after Chicago and I'll probably be over running again. Haha!

Anyway, last night was my first race since Wrigley back in April: Storm the Bastille 5K. It's a fun run so very low key but verrrry crowded. It's one of the most popular "couch to 5K" Mke runs I can think of because it's right in the middle of the summer (after peeps have continued to get their run on from their New Years resolution), it isn't chipped so there are no results, and the party really begins after this race ends (anywhere from 9:12pm to 10ishpm depending on your speed or lack thereof) as it's part of a four-day downtown festival we have here. Running through the streets of Milwaukee at night is pretty swank. Anyway, I got 26:25 and was SUPER stoked about it. Made me feel back on track. What's funny is that I've been doing these two mile "run as fast as you possibly can" runs...not sure why but I guess it's something different? I barely crack 8:30min miles for just those two and I'm usually dying at the end. At the end of TWO miles. So I was very surprised that I was able to maintain this same pace for 3.1. Race atmosphere will do that I guess! I also knew that my arch-nem was running the same race. Talk about a carrot dangling in front of a rabbit. You don't want a negative force to drive you, but sometimes it just does. Call me Vader.

Meanwhile I've had some hip issues since that 10mi last weekend. I could barely walk a block to my car after I was done without tears flooding my eyes. So I took the week off (minus the race), and I may even take a break from my long run this weekend, we'll see. I've still got nine weeks and I don't need to push the envelop here. Next weekend I'm in Boston visiting my friend/old college roomie who is getting her Doctorate at HAHHHHHVAHD. I don't know. She's wicked smaht or something. So I'm looking VERY much forward to a looooong run through Cambridge. Hopefully I won't trip on all the ivy?