I don't know how to tell you this, but I am not running the Big D full marathon in 2 weeks. I'll just be doing the half. I started out so gung-ho about tackling 26.2 again, I honestly gave it the old college try. In January, things were so busy that training kept taking a back seat to life and Adam and I went to run our first loop around White Rock on the same day that our friends that were training for a different full (the Cowtown in Feb) were doing 2 laps. We saw them around 11 miles in and again when they were almost done. Between watching that and having my own internal struggles for the 9 miles I was doing, I remembered just how time consuming and hard that training for a full is. I've said it many times but I'm just happy doing half marathons. I don't have to put in a ton of time training since my fitness level always stays pretty high and I know that running a full will almost certainly set me back from my goal to break 2 hours in the half by October. When your lung capacity is handicapped, breaking 2 hours is a HUGE DEAL and I really want to do it.
I came close in January. We ran the 3M Half in Austin at the end of the month and I finished in 2:05:58. I wasn't setting out to break two there, I mostly wanted to get a new PR. I did, by a lot! My previous best was 2:22:00 at Virginia Beach in 2009 and my last 3M was 2:35. I was happy to have knocked so much time off but I still have to figure out how to get rid of those last 5 minutes and 59 seconds.
We ran Cowtown in February and my training wasn't where I'd like it to be, but Cowtown is not going to be my PR race. It's hillier in the last few miles and it was a pretty tough course. I think my time was around 2:08-2:09 but I didn't pay that close of attention since it wasn't anywhere near my PR. There's a long hill up to downtown Fort Worth at Mile 9 and it took me most of Mile 10 to get my breathing back under control. I did see the lululemon cheering station and some of my pals during that time and it was at a point in the race where I really needed some smiling faces.
Big D is in two weeks and it might be our last half until the 13.1 in October, which is my A race for trying to go sub-2:00. If I'm not able to do it then, I will probably look for a half in November and run White Rock in December. The cooler it gets, the better my chances are.
Running hasn't been a big focus for me lately. I've been busy re-tooling my yoga teaching schedule, adding and dropping some classes to make things work for my schedule and Adam's. I had a moment when I realized that I wasn't devoting as much time to my own personal yoga practice that I'd like to so I've been going to quite a few more classes. I have been doing cardio Pilates on the reformers an average of once a week and in February I started getting into spin. In a perfect week, I'd have a good run, a good bike ride, 2-3 yoga classes and 2-3 other classes. It's something I've been working toward, anyway.
We have the MS 150 ride coming up in May so I'm trying to spend more time on the bike. I finally broke down and got a real road bike in February and it's changed my ride. Through trial and error, I think I've come to the conclusion that clipping into the pedals is not going to work for my body. If the shoes bother me in a 50 minute spin class, I don't think they'll work for 8 hours on the bike, two days in a row. I just hit my fundraising goal on Monday, which was pretty exciting. Now I just need to get my bike inspected and log some more hours in the saddle. More on that for the next post.
Both of us have been busy trying to find a good work/life balance. Adam is in his busy time at work and we're both striving to take on more tasks and leadership in our respective jobs. He's been great helping my dad and me with our therapy cookbook project for Grandmother, which hopefully we'll be finishing up soon.
Higgins is still crazy. We had his best friend, Dog, over a couple of weeks ago and left the two of them home together in our bedroom to see if Higgins would be ok without humans around. He ended up digging/eating some holes in the carpet in our bedroom. At first I was pretty mad at him but by the end of the night, I was mostly just upset that he doesn't seem to find comfort in having another dog around when we aren't at home. He'll just have to continue being crated and going to day care for long days. I think in my mind, I thought getting a second dog would be a band-aid for his issues. It's hard because we have no idea why he has such severe separation anxiety and no real way to fix the problem. He has a pretty great trick routine down since our vet recommended working on tricks and obedience training with him on our last visit. It's made him a lot calmer about being crated and he very rarely cries when we put him in anymore.
Hopefully it won't be three months until I write in this space again! This also reminds me that I probably should consider taking a few more pictures to document our current adventures.
