Looking Back

At the past week or two :)

The trip to Cincinnati was really nice. We got to check out J and C's new place and the construction crew was even nice enough to have a wall up so we would have somewhere to sleep :) They had to have their whole living room wall replaced because of flooding!

Friday morning I rode my bike into work so that David could just pick me up and we would be on our way. Somehow I managed to get out of driving duty both there and back. We made pretty good time and only had one traffic jam due to a truck that ran out of steam in the middle lane of the highway. Yikes!

We decided to head to dinner and went to a restaurant in Loveland that I believe is an old Firehouse and has brick oven pizzas. C called ahead and made reservations but once we were there we were informed that they don't take reservations and we were not on the list. Oh really. Well we tried our best to get seated ASAP but had to wait regardless. A bunch of people ahead of us ended up not being there so the wait wasn't too bad. Just a bit irritating and of course you aren't tipping the snotty hostess so you really can't do to much about your frustration.

We ordered a couple of pizzas and some artichoke dip. I think they made their chips there, they were excellent. I had a margarita that went straight to my head. Good times. We were pretty exhausted when we got back. I took a shower and then played a game with C and David before heading to bed. I can't remember the name of the game but it involved placing board pieces and little characters on roads, cities, or farms to get points. Despite a bit of confusion on my part I still won :)

We slept in a little bit on Saturday and C made us a fantastic breakfast. J introduced me to "We Love Katamari" which I proceeded to play well into the afternoon. Holy addictive game Batman! Really it is a good thing we don't have a PS2 (I tried to convince David we needed one when we got back but he wasn't buying it).

Around 4 C and J's friends came over and I rode for 75 minutes with S. We had a good time chit chatting and riding on the gorgeous trail. We stopped for ice cream and shaved ice on the way back. In the 10 minutes it took to eat our ice cream it got COLD. Thank goodness we were only a few miles away from the apartment. We were both shivering and had goosebumps.

After the ride we headed out to an Indian restaurant with G/S, C/J, and David's sisters boyfriend who was running the relay on Sunday. We ate so much! I got a spinach/cheese dish and it was delightful. The bread was very good. I was absolutely stuffed but we made room for the dessert they had. Kind of like Gellato with a very interesting sauce, a bit egg noggy, hard to explain.

After dinner I gave Rae and Brent a call to let them know where I would be on the course and what I was going to wear. Then we watched Spirited Away. I was not sure I was going to enjoy the movie but it was pretty good. A little odd in places but definitely worth staying up late for. Somehow between dinner and the movie I managed to drink 3 or 4 glasses of wine. I like to test the boundaries a bit the night before spectating you know?

So I woke up around 5 AM on Sunday and tried to wake David up but he hadn't slept well so I headed to the race on my own. I got there about 6 AM and jogged over to mile 5. It was still dark as the leaders ran by.

I was watching for B and D to be with the 3:40 pace group and sure enough B was right next to the pace bunny so I started running alongside on the sidewalk calling her name and cheering. Just slight uphills at this point and I am wondering why B thought she needed me here. B didn't realize I was there until about mile 6. At that point the hill starts to get a bit steeper. I take B's hat because it is pretty cloudy and take some photos as she starts attacking the hills. I believe I heard the pace bunny say that that mile was a bit fast at 8:10. I ran alongside B to the crest of this huge hill around 7 where you could look out and see the whole city. In all the commotion I totally forgot to take a picture.

At 7 I urged B on and turned back to find D. It didn't take long she spotted my Wild B Tee and I ran with here from about 6.5 through 7.5. She looked good but was in pain. Her tendon was bothering her so it was going to be a tough race. I turned back and almost immediately hear Rae shout out my name. I wave and jump in and run with Rae and Brent for 2 or 3 miles along the half course. We are chit chatting and taking pics. It was really cool to meet them and I was glad I got to run with them. I wasn't sure what route the half took so around 9 or 10 I headed backwards along the course hoping to catch David's sisters boyfriend finishing up the first leg of the relay, but he was too quick and I missed him.

So I just ran down the hills to mile 5 cheering all the way. I got some really strange looks from everyone. But I just kept cheering and encouraging the runners up the hills. Once I reached 5 I realized that I could have just followed the half course and I would have ended up in the same place. Oh well, I had a blast cheering everyone on and a lot of people are going to wonder who the crazy girl in the Wild Bill Tee and pink backpack was :)

I gave Rae a call and asked where they were. Went over and chatted with them while watching the marathon on the JumboTron. GHF found us so after some pics and good byes we headed out towards mile 25 of the marathon to cheer on our SERC peeps. GHF turned back and I got to around 24.5 before D showed up. She looked great but was in a lot of pain. I ran with her up through 25.5ish . The race was giving awards for the fastest mile from 25.2 to the finish. If D didn't get it I would be amazed. Her overall time was 3:36 and she ran her last mile in 7:15.

I went back to around 24.5 and waited for B, she wasn't far behind. I ran with her through the same point and urged her on. She ended with a 3:45ish and 1st in her age group. She is absolutely incredible!

Now it was time to look for GH. He came by looking good and I ran with him through the same mile stretch. Then I went back looking for GK. Before I saw her I managed to get to just past 24 and picked up C from CTC. This was her first marathon and she ended up running about 30 minutes faster than she expected! I ran with her through 25.5ish and went back for GK. I picked her up and ran with her almost to the finish. She had planned on running the half and changed her mind the day before!

These girls I run with are absolutely freaking amazing I am telling you! Looking forward to GNO this Thursday to catch up on all the marathon gossip.

After the marathon I walked with GK and we found D and her boyfriend who very kindly drove me to my car. I ended up running about 2 and a half hours and probably walking another 2-4 miles.

Got back to C and Js and we went out to lunch at Chipotle. I ate my whole burrito. It was incredibly tasty. I love their rice it has this lemony flavor and is just to die for.

We went back to the apartment and G/S and I got in another hour on the bike before heading to their place and playing some four square. I have never played this game. It involved 4 squares and 4 active players. Those not playing would jump in when someone was out. You bounced the ball from square to square and if it bounced twice in your square or you hit it out you were out. I SUCK at eye hand coordination games and did not do very well. But we had fun.

The drive home I slept pretty much the entire way, waking to eat a frosty and fries at Wendy's.

And that was pretty much the whole Cinci weekend. Can't wait for C/J's wedding in June it is going to be a blast!

Last week began a slew of what should have been double workout days. I didn't do so well but I did manage to get in one good workout in each sport (in addition to a few others)

Highlights:

Tuesday's track workout went well all 3 miles of intervals under 6:20 pace
Thursday swim included a 1,000 yard time trial in 15:54 (For some reason I got it into my head that I couldn't do this in less than 19 minutes and according to Bold this meant I should just be doing drills, so I was relieved to see that I am indeed still a fishy)
Saturday 31 mile bike ride with B2. It is weird for this to be a shorter ride this year considering for Olympic training this would have been a longer ride for me.

Today I managed to get in my 2,500 yard swim. And I think David and I will go for a walk/jog in the rain tonight.

I am super pleased with today's workout. I included some shorter stuff because I was just tired of counting laps so my main set was 10*100 on a 1:45 send off

1:31,1:32,1:31,1:30,1:29,1:29,1:29,1:29,1:29,1:27!

Fun! I have no clue how this compares to last years 100 yard times but it was a good feeling to actually get faster after a couple rather than slowing.

It has been raining pretty much non stop since Thursday but most of my workouts were during the lows so I did not have to fight with any of the torrential downpours Trisaratops fought on her bike this weekend. I am hoping this weather clears up by Wednesday for my bike ride so I can commute into work. This week is back to mostly single workout days so it will be easier to ease into this new routine I am going to try and keep. So far so good.