The decision was mentally made last week, then I spent 7 days in half marathon training mode, also know as complete and utter bliss, which sealed the deal.

Tuesday night at speedwork, I got to do 800m intervals rather than mile repeats. I love 800m. They are like purring kittens compared to mile repeats. Then yesterday, the weather was horrible, probably the worst day we have had this summer for running (yes it's September). It was hot and humid. I would of been doing 18 - 22 miles, but instead I did 10 miles, and that was tough.

As I turned around and watched everyone else continue on. I have to admit, there was no quilt, no envy, no doubt. Nope. Nada. Nothing.

I may even have smiled, jumped in the air, threw up arms up and shouted yes!

It's official. I am going to run the half in Grand Rapids.

The thought is this, change from the marathon to the half in Grand Rapids.

What?

I know, really why would I have run 21 miles the other week to do a half. But here's the thing (now begins my justification of the thought)

Grand Rapids has become this weekend away. I am rooming with 4 other girls. Who, all like to have a really good time. All four are doing the half. All four are not really training. So basically I am going away for three days with four people who will be doing it up large while I rest and attempt to sleep (oh and by the way all five of us in one room). I just found out there is a dueling piano bar 5 minutes from our hotel.

So my weekend could look like this.

1. Check into hotel
2. I stay in room, unpack and have a early night.
3. Get awoke by 4 drunk girls, the 3 fireman, 2 rich international playboys and dirty hot guy they picked up. Try to see fun side while slipping into angry ugly zone.
4. Go to expo
5. Hang around hotel, resting and taking it easy, inevitably self loathing and hate for all things running will commence
6. Drink water all day
7. Eat boring plain dinner, washed down with more water
8. Go to bed early
9. Think of ways to kill my roommates as the giggle like teenagers
10. Run marathon, do shitty because of lack of sleep and unresolved anger and jealousy
11. Moment of joy as I complete marathon and can now party
12. Have ½ a beer and fall asleep on bus.

Or ....

It could look like this

1. Check into hotel
2. Throw bags in room and hit the Dueling Piano bar
3. Met the 3 fireman, 2 rich international playboys and dirty hot guy who buy us drinks while we sing and dance the night away.
4. Wake up with hangover but don't care because of all the crazy-wild fun having last night.
5. Go to expo, after big greasy breakfast
6. Shop like it's my job, buy designer jeans that have been mispriced as clearance
7. Drink alcohol and coffee all day
8. Eat spicy Mexican food to soak up the pitcher of margaritas
9. Go to bed ... maybe
10. Run half-marathon with four friends, don't puke once

Seriously, maybe I am just at that point in training where I am over it, but the thought won't leave.

I really believe in believing. If you think you can you will, if you think you can't you won't.

I bet Simon Whitfield believed.

In other news. While I was busy working yesterday I came across this website. It's funny how something can suddenly inspire you. Although, nutrition seems to be the buzz word at the moment. G, N and J are all eating healthy. We had a talk from a naturopath, on Saturday before our run. She explained why we feel tired, what is missing from our diets and what we shouldn't have in it, sugar, evil. I see and hear all this, I agree with it, but I need something to make me go, yeah. For some strange reason this site did it for me.

Maybe, it's because they live in SoCal, are beautiful and healthy and seem like a fun couple I would like to hang with. Whatever the reason, it made me go shopping, and cooking!

Here's the results ...

Mexican soup (handy to have in the fridge for after a run)

Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

Dinner, Chicken Taco and salad (to-die-for)

Like my stomach issues on todays run. Totally self inflected. I know spicy thai food does not work before a long run. I also love it. The love won. I indulged in way too much, heavy on the chilli, and it all came back to haunt me at mile 2 and then mile 9. Besides for these minor inconveniences, mile 1 - 13 of my 16 miler were great. Then I bonked and had to drag my sorry ass back.

Sore legs, I take drugs, tired, I sleep. Lack of energy I have to rethink, replan my nutrition.

I headed to the grocery store and loaded up on a wonderful array of colourful healthy foods. Including a piece of salmon for dinner.

After marinading in citrus the salmon was cooked to perfection on the bbq.

I took it off the grill, put it on a plate on the side shelf. As I bent down to turn off the gas (I have a fear of it blowing up) I thought, that's not a safe place to leave it. So I stood up, hit the shelf with my shoulder and watched, helplessly, as my salmon went airbourn. The plate hit the balcony railing and the salmon went over. Splat.

... on the bright side the chocolate that followed my plate of asparagus was delicious!

Afterwards I had a conversation with our coach about the race. He asked an interesting question.

"When you race, do you always give it everything you got?"

He went on to explain that during a race he is in pain the entire time, lungs burning, basically an exertion level just below puking.

Hmmmm .... let me just think about that for the time it took france to touch the wall after the americans in the 4x100 relay.

"NO"

There are races I have trained for and felt that pain, met my goal, set a pr and danced my happy dance (once my legs were functioning again).

I definitely don't do that every race. Take yesterday's race. I ran harder than a training run, or tempo run, but not full out taste the lining of your lungs. His question made me wonder why? Would I be better if I pushed it, gave it everything or only signed up and trained for important races?

Here are my excuses reasons:

1. I am not training for this particular race/distance/terrain
2. I do the race because it forces me to work harder
3. It's a change from doing a long run
4. My friends are doing it, I do whatever they do or tell me to do, luckily the ground was soft at the bottom of the cliff, so I suffered no permanent damage

Do you try and pr at every race? Do you ever do a race just for fun?

Freshly grown. Freshly picked. All natural. No chemicals*.

I brought a bowl to work for my mid-morning snack**. They taste slighly fishy. Not fishy as in, there is something fishy going on here, where fishy would mean strange. Although, by fruit tasting like fish, that is strange, is it not?

It hasn't stopped me eating them which is probably more worrying. But has made me scratch my head and create this very interesting post.

* maybe berries always taste like fish but chemicals change flavour.
** the only reason for this post is to impress you with the healthiness of my mid morning snack.

I did 18 miles today, and it was bloody awesome.

This same route and distance the same time last year took me 3 hours and 34 mins, this year, 3 hours and 15 mins!

HELLLLOOOO!

Not to blow my own trumpet, but .... toot toot, that wonderful 3.15 included 7 waterstops, 2 toilet breaks and a couple huge hills, where I confess I walked for a couple minutes on the last one (which really only makes my running time even faster and my finish time more impressive).

Then after the run and dip in the lake we had lunch on the patio at the beach afterwards. Which took longer to arrive than it did for me to run there ... they compt'd my turkey burger ... sweet.

Not really pool like weather ... so what should I do?

Here are the choices ....

A

8am Get up!
lite breakfast
9.30am Spin class
11 am Hot Yoga
12 noon shower
12.30 lunch with friend (very healthy, today is the start of the new me V 78.03)
2.30pm afternoon nap
6pm trail run
8pm wine open, at friends to watch 'So you think you can dance'

B

No alarm , sleep til 8ish
8.30am Easy 3 mile run
9.10am Very large coffee and a bagel (it's my day off, I just ran, totally earned the bagel)
10.30am Yoga (not hot) with friend
12 noon lunch then shopping
Pretend I am going to trail run, til around 5pm, when I decide to cancel it due to exhaustion from shopping
8pm Order take out, wine open, at friends to watch 'So you think you can dance'

C

No alarm , sleep til whenever
Coffee
Watch morning TV while lying on sofa
Think about going to the gym, laugh so hard, feel tired
Nap
Eat
Watch a movie
Read
Think about the gym again, maybe food will give me energy to go
Eat
So full feel tired
Nap
8pm Haven't showered, so watch 'So you think you can dance' at home
Go to bed

Maybe you know them as jujubes? If not, you don't know what you are missing. They are delicious little gummy goodness. Highly addictive. You will eat them till you feel sick, then have a couple more.

I got my hair cut last week. I was trying to grow it, but the heat and humidity made it double in size from blow dry to walking out the front door, which would be fantastic if it was 1984. But I gave up the big hair along with my dream of hooking up with anyone of the members of Duran Duran, so it was time to fix it.

Here's the new do.

This week g & n exceeded their normal level of perfection. Something I would of thought impossible.

Last Sunday, g provided us with the most incredible waterstop on our long run on what can only be described as a hotter than hell day. He wasn't running, but came out for 3 + hours to provide about 6 of us with cold refreshments and much needed sponges. Supporting the 6 of us soon changed to supporting the entire group all 80 + of them. If you had asked any runner last Sunday who was the better humanitarian G or Mother Teresa, I think G would of taken it.

I've had the last week off work, it's been hot and sunny. G and N have a pool. N says come on over, door is open, help yourself to the pool. Enjoy. Seriously. It was like being on vacation all week.

As if supplying the masses with water and keeping my tan all bronzey isn't enough to be granted a sainthood, well there's more. G provided a impromptu sponge stop at Friday nights 5k. Again another hotter than hell day. Then today, he was back out there with his travelling waterstop. Complete with sponges, water, coke, jubes, pretezels and watermelon.

If they start adopting children from Africa they'll be the local Brad and Angelina.

I got just over 16 miles in this morning. The run was good, I felt really strong. But holy crap was it humid. I looked like I jumped in a pool at the end of the run. I was drenched. Everything I was wearing was soaking wet. When you realise it is all your own sweat, it really is quite gross.

I am currently aching like I was hit by a rather large truck, then beaten with a baseball bat by the angry driver, then forced to run an ultra marathon.

Normally we have thunderstorms in mid to late August, but this we have had, well too many to count already. When I say too many to count, I can count that high, I just can't remember, I like to think I am so smart that my brain is full and only the really important information, like who is doing who in celebrity-land is retained.

Just believe me when I say lots, like a couple a week, enough to make you build a straw bale house and invite Eco-Al over, or maybe just contemplate it.

We had one at the track the other night. When I got there, this huge menacing storm cloud a few miles south was moving towards us. Then I glanced at the track, metal stands all the way around. It was like a giant metal funnel that I was going to run around playing chicken with a lightening bolt.

Since I'm not a lover of speedwork and don't want to die by electricity surging through my body, my plan was the first flash of lightening or roll of thunder and I was outta there.

The rain started as we began our first 800m interval. By 100m my shoes where squishy, by 200m my contacts were floating around my eyes, I had to squint to keep them from popping out.

The storm passed over without any lightening by the end of the second 800m. I would of have sacrificed a contact or two to have kept it raining, it was refreshing. When it stopped the heat and humidity came right back. The last 800m was brutal.

800m - 4.09
800m - 4.06
800m - 4.08
800m - 4.12
800m - 4.16 ... it would of been 4.30 but I picked it up on the last 200m so I felt like death when I finished

I wasn't at all happy with those splits, until I looked back at the same workout this time last year and my fastest was 4.22. It went straight to my head, I am awesome!

Hydration - lots of water all day ... check
Eat Right - homemade pasta, sauce and turkey meatballs ... check
Sleep - early night ... check

Waking up is where things started to go wrong. The alarm went off, I don't even remember whacking snooze. Alarm goes off again, I remember hitting it this time, thinking I had extra time because my white pants where ironed and I'd wear my black top with it, don't have to waste time picking an outfit ... 10 more minutes. The next time it went off, I actually looked at the time, 6.35 am! Why would I set my alarm so early, my first meeting is at 10am, I don't have to be at work til 9am today.

Snooze, 10 minutes later, snooze, another 10 minutes.

Then it hit me. It was Sunday, not Monday. It was 7.05am. I was running in 25 minutes.

ARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

I dressed, grabbed my bag (thank god I packed it the night before) and half a bagel and headed out the door. My garmin, luckily is right where I left it last week (I only use it on long runs, no idea why) in the trunk of the car. As I am driving and eating my bagel I turn on the garmin, which instantly dies. Low battery. I left my watch at home. Since I am already late, I decide I am going to have a liberating no watch run.

I finally arrive 10 minutes, and my awesome running buddies are still waiting. We head out on my new favourite route. It is almost all on park paths with lots of shade. I have no idea how far we've run until C turns back since she is doing 10 miles. That means 5 miles done, only a mile til the turnaround, kinda loving this no watch no garmin run. It seemed to take forever to get to the turnaround. Miss my watch miss my garmin.

The run back is good, except my foot bothered me a bit. I am experimenting with some new things on the bad broken foot to protect it from future breaks and pains. I'm wearing my new sunshine shoes, which are half a size bigger than my brooks, my foot feels like it's flopping about. I stop and tie the laces tighter. I've wrapped my foot, half way back that starts to irritate me so I stop again and take the tape off. The last couple miles my foot goes numb because the laces are too tight. I stop and retie.

The whole foot stopping starting thing was really annoying, but it did distract me from the heat and how tired I was near the end.

After we had been back a while someone came in with a garmin and told us the 12 miles we had just done was actually just over 13 miles .... wooo hoooo! Totally glad my garmin battery was dead, I would of turn around at 6 miles and not done the extra. Yeah!

"How do you prepare for the run and refuel during the run?"

I love a good question, not only does it make me feel smart and like an expert that I definitely am not, but it also saves me the energy of thinking of something witty and enlightening to blog about.

I don't mean to disappoint you Emily, I actually have a good, sensible answer to this question, but if you were looking for someone who puts it into practice, I can recommend a few other sites.

Case and point ...

I moved my Sunday long run to Saturday last week.

to prepare for the run ....

I drank very little water all day Friday
I consumed three beers and an amaretto sour
I ate popcorn and a slice of spicy cajun shrimp pizza for dinner
I got very little sleep
I pressed snooze so many times I didn't have time to eat before my run on Saturday morning

refueling on the run

I forgot to pack my fuel belt the night before, so I showed up to the run with one gel in my hand.

That is what not to do.

After years of doing this I know better, but I am a very very slow learner.

This is what I should have done ...

to prepare for the run ...

Hydrate, Eat Right, Sleep.

Drink lots of water, I try and drink 2 litres throughout the day. If the weather is going to be hot for my run, then I'll drink a bottle of gatorade as well.

Eat what works for you. You will probably have to experiment to find the perfect pre-run meal. For me it's pasta with tomato sauce or homemade veggie pizza and salad. It is definitely not chinese food nor anything with beans. I learned this the hard and painful way.

In the morning before my run, a bagel works really well. I have half toasted with PB, then when the mileage goes over 16 miles, I eat the whole bagel. I usually need an hour and a half to digest it, so I'll get up and eat at 6.15am go back to bed for 30 minutes and run at 8am.

Sleep. I really need sleep to function. As your runs get longer and more demanding you'll get tired. So your body needs to rest. Not just before a long run but the days leading up to it as well.

Refueling on the run

For me water and gels work best. I can drink gatorade if it is really watered down otherwise it makes me feel sick. I love blocks, but they don't love me.

During a marathon I take a gel before I start and then at 6, 12, 20 miles. Usually after 20 I can't stomach anything sweet, a couple pretzels seem to work magic around 23 miles.

If you haven't tried gels yet, take one on a shorter run to see how they work (react) for you.

Post run ...

This one is really important. Get some protein into you 30 minutes post run. A protein shake, smootie or half a pb sandwich.

The exact combination of what works or doesn't an individual thing, a bit of trial and error. Try things out. like pasta for dinner and oatmeal for breakfast, or pizza and cereal to find what fuels you best.

oh and stretch. Like you life depending on it!

I'm off now to lie by the pool, drink margaritas and devour chips before tonight's run.

Even though I hate running through the long hot days of summer, when I think there is just no way I'll be able to do it, run 26.2 miles. There will come a point sometime in September, when the heat will be replaced with fresh cool air. It's like breaking through a barrier. Exploding out of a coccoon.

That's my favourite moment in training. When sweat and self doubt are replaced goose bumps and belief.

This year, Fall marathon plans have reached a whole new level of awesomeness. If running 26.2 miles isn't enough to get your party pants on, well we have confirmation that our Ottawa Girls on Tour will reunite and take it state side.

I'm starting to get excited about my Fall marathon.

I've decided to change my plans for running this weekend. I was going to do the 8k race on Sunday instead of running long, but I feel I need the distance. With not running long this winter due to injury I really feel my lack of endurance. Since February, I've run over 10 miles once. My legs were not happy last Sunday, the last mile was brutal. Mentally this screws me. So, I will run long, 12 miles Saturday morning, then watch the race with coffee in hand on Sunday.

This fabulous plan also means ...

a) I can drink Saturday night
b) sleep in Sunday morning

As much as I believe in someone's right for privacy, I also believe when Prada gives you free stuff, you gotta suck it up and smile.

So just for today I am defending the paps. You see earlier, one of them took one for the team.

Photographers were trying to get shots of Matty hitting the surf. Some surfers got all territorial and a fight broke out ... of course Matty was not involved, his hand was full.

One of them still managed to get this shot ... thank you jebus!

In running news, I did a 12.5 mile run this morning. It was a tough one. I am rather sore all over.