New blog purpose--running

Me again, and this may just be for me since I haven't written in about 4 months and I seriously doubt anyone looks at this anymore. That's just as well since what I want to write about is running and I don't think there is a soul I know who would want to read my thoughts about running, but that's consuming a lot of my thoughts as of late and for the next 7 weeks, so I'm going to dish them out to the running gods, or cyberspace, in hopes that I'll chill out since I'm unloading.

Let me say this first. I hate that my last post about how tough the last 8 months had been is what's been up for almost 4 months so anyone that sees that and then nothing for a long time might be concerned. If you were so kind, don't worry you're pretty little head, the summer has been blissfully lazy--after a crazy few months of insane work on the house that is. We hosted a small party for Josh's firm this summer and that was a serious shot in the arm for me to get the house fixed up. I worked day and night, literally, well into the night many times, trying to get the house, my art projects and other silly pet projects done in time for the party.

After everyone left.
Kids fairy corner. Still not totally finished, but whatevs.
The best relaxing spot. I bought a new seat cushion for the swing (that I painted instead of black and love, but not the cushions), but it didn't arrive in time. Neither did my pretty sheer curtains, they have since arrived and are sitting in a box waiting for someone to care. Josh wired it for electricity, which I thought was pretty hot and then strung the lights inside it the night of my 30th bday. The real present was when he had one more light left (and it was sort of a pain to do with little bitty staples and a big hammer and mega fragile lights that kept breaking) and I thought it all looked wrong and redid the layout. We went in the house at 10:30pm to enjoy some cake my mom sent since we didn't have time to do anything like that. So worth it, I LOVE it!

This was our house before we painted it, but as we laid sod earlier this year. You should picture it with trashy dead trees and rocks and plants and dirt everywhere first, then this was the improved house and yard. That's a bag of grey river rocks we shoveled out to our walk ways that are so pretty.
House after it's makeover. I learned that power washers are immensely satisfying--take note of the fence before and after!! We also had the house painted...twice. I drove up to find a bright turquoise house and almost cried, it was horrendous. We had them change it that day. Then added a bright orange panel, too bright as usual, changed it to yellow. Painted our front door yellow too, so happy! Added circle stepping stones, lights, and voila.

Had the party, it was fun and I soaked up being in a tranquil backyard that I looked at thinking of all the little bits we had worked on and was mostly in love with just sitting out there all evening with the company. After the party, I immediately on a whirlwind tour of family reunions and by the time I got back, I was ready to find out what the "lazy days of summer" really were all about--I truly can't remember EVER feeling like I've had one of those. Plenty of fun summers, but I can't remember feeling bored or lazy. BRING IT ON! I'd paid my dues to the house and yard and felt entitled to just enjoy vegging out the summer with my kids. I know I just used the word "entitled" and it just sounds like a dirty word any more doesn't it? With Hazel starting school today though, real life has started again.

It has been a marvelous 6 weeks of just playing and hanging out with my kids and Josh has even gotten to join us sometimes, hooray! And the running, I couldn't get off without doing any hard work, so I ran in prep for the St. George Marathon I'm doing with my sister October 6. I've trained like someone I would say is off their rocker in hopes that I could snag my goal I missed a few years ago. I plan on this being my last marathon and I want my goal time SOOO badly and then I want to put this all to rest and just enjoy my group classes at the YMCA and family jogs. And here is where this will all get very boring.

I thought I trained hard then, but I've almost doubled my mileage now and my midweek runs have gotten way faster--but not my weekend runs. That's actually how every single training book I've read says you should do it, so I thought I was on top of things, then I signed up for a half marathon to see how I was doing and I came in 5-10 minutes slower than I expected and I was crushed. That was two weeks ago and I've been in a funk about it since. I don't think it was just a bad day either, my whole body felt tired from the beginning and it was just hard. Since then I've gone from being totally pumped about the marathon to feeling down about it since I'm putting all this work in and don't know how to fix things--it's only 7 weeks away. I went to the library and checked out the 8 books that were at all relevant, and even some non-relevant ones about people's stories about ultra running just to see if I could find any useful advice.

Last night I scoured the web for training schedules and it was sort of annoying that there are vastly different opinions on how to go about it. I am so confused and lost about what to do. I decided it's not working for me how it's going and I was faster on fewer miles before with more speedwork, so I'm basically doing that with some other tweaks. This is what I was doing and this is what I'm switching to. I'm nervous about changing it and cutting back, it doesn't sound right, but I'm hoping it will help. And now I wish I had maintained this somewhat so I had people to read this and give me some good ideas! And if you know anyone in the bay area that wants to run 20 miles with me. I just did that alone last week and it was so boring I almost scratched my eyes out. Join me! I won't scratch your eyes out!