After an Extended Leave

It's been over a month since I updated, but two months since I've really being running anything worth mentioning. I've kept between 15-25 miles per week and that's it. I was intending to start training again at the start of July, but it never happened. Now it's August and I'm feeling the pressure to be race ready for the end of the month. The CHaD half is August 29th, so I need to be in competitive half shape within a month.

To test my endurance, I went out for a 12 miler this weekend. At least I think its 12 miles. I need to double check that. I ended up running it in 2 hrs and 14 minutes, which isn't saying much. That's longer than my usual half time, so...I'm slow. I know. It's also summer, hot and muggy. So I might be making excuses, however, I also know that it could be hot and muggy for the race AND have awful hills. I remember those three hills of death last year. I think the rain is what got me through, but I doubt it'll downpour like that again. So this means stamina and conditioning!

Given the hills that I'll be facing, I have actually been running Broadway/Winter Hill a lot lately. There you get the double whammy of direct sun + pavement AND a 5 degree incline or so. Beautiful. I'm thinking about locating some bleachers as well to do bleacher runs. Prepping for hills is just brutal, although I'm hoping that my strength training will really kick in here. Lately I've been really trying to push myself into sprints at the end. I always debate this: If I still have the energy to sprint the last 400m, then how many more miles do I have in me at the regular pace? Am I holding out on myself? Or is it pure adrenaline that's driving me to the finish?

Still no soreness after the run on Saturday morning. I'm the anti-sore, free from all DOMS. What I was left with was far more annoying: chafing. My chest looks all cut up and the crease where my legs meet my torso is all slices up with chafing lines. Which was awesome when I went to get a bikini wax yesterday.

This time around Chris, the trainer that I'd set up with my lifting routine with, is putting together a training schedule to incorporate my running/drills with the lifting. Hopefully that will be done today or tomorrow so I can get going with that. Until then, I suppose I'll just set up some stuff for myself this week. Try to keep on task while my boyfriend (the anti-runner/exerciser) is in town. I hate to spend time away from him while there is only so much time we can spend together around my work, but I can't give up on my personal goals. I know that. I just wish that he would be willing to spend those hours with me as well - you know, give a short jog a chance. Every time he has an excuse though - no shoes, no shorts, no socks. This time I'm thinking about doing something "outdoorsy" that looks like fun, but really involves exercise like rock-climbing or "walking" somewhere. I dunno, we'll see. If we get up to Maine, I'd love to run on the beaches!

I'm trying to be all clean-eating also. We'll see what the creatine/beta-alanine combo ends up doing for me and how it impacts my running. Short-twitch/long-twitch - as long as they twitch into a better performance overall.