onepinkfuzzy

I am so sore. All day, every time I got up from my desk, I was groaning and moaning. I stumbled about the office, hunched over like a 100-year-old woman. I used my arms to literally move each leg forward. I could not walk up the stairs to my apartment. I have so far to go in my fitness levels! If 10.25 miles and 2500 vt ft does this to me, what will 32 miles and 1600 vt ft do to me?!?!?! At least Pemberton has less vertical, but still...

I've done well on refueling - haven't eaten too much. After long runs in the past, I've wanted to eat fast food, greasy pizza, or some other form of spasm-inducing, saturated-fat-laden food. I also haven't gone nuts on the calories. I've found that if I eat something somewhat substantial (such as a chocolate brownie Clif bar...mmmm....) within 30 minutes of a major run, I feel much better, and I don't get much of the "oh my god I have to eat that giant slice of pizza RIGHT NOW" feeling.

Sometimes I really hate having gallbladder issues - it's so damn inconvenient! But then I get instances like this weekend, when I was talking to someone about it, and she commented on how she had hers taken out, and how it's no fun if you can't eat good greasy Mexican food. She weighs probably a good 50 lbs more than I do, and it just hammers home the point that if I had my gallbladder taken out, I wouldn't be able to do what I do! I wouldn't weigh 140 (5'4" - striving for 130 and hopefully 120 eventually!), I wouldn't be running, I wouldn't be getting in shape! I'd still be a 200-pound, lazy, sluggish person, laying on the couch all day long - yuck! There's no fun in that!!!!

So I'm looking at walking on Wednesday night, with the hiking club from work, and possibly running with my usual running partner, Paki, after the walk. She's been sick, and is finally ready to start running again. Paki was so instrumental in getting me started in running this summer - meeting me three days a week at 5 a.m. on the river path, going slowly with me when I couldn't even run a mile, reassuring me that as long as I kept this up, I'd get faster and be able to run further. We're having issues trying to get training in. Can't meet that early in the morning any more - I'm too scared of encountering random homeless or evil people in the dark, and Paki, being a native Tucsonan, can't stand the cold (yes, in Tucson anything under 60 degrees is cold). Can't meet at night more than once a week, because that cuts into my Ash time - I made a commitment that my son is more important than my training. Can do weekends, so it looks like long, back-to-back runs is predominately how I will be getting my mileage in theis winter. I will be up to 30+ miles a week in mid-December, and need to keep that up until mid-January, at which point I'll begin tapering (the race is in early February).

Wow, got way off my point there. Wanted to discuss my miles for this week. Okay, walking Wednesday. Hoping to run on Thursday and/or Friday - met a woman through a Tucson trail running group who, unlike me, is not scared of the river path. So she might be able to meet me in my apt. complex's parking lot, and then we can go for miles on the river path - and she'll get up at 4:30-5:00 a.m., woo hoo! Hopefully this will work out...keep your fingers crossed for me! Am hoping to get in a 12-miler on the east side of Tucson this weekend, in Saguaro National Park.

Feel confident about my training. Yay! Okay, time to go relax - watch some football, one of my other passions. Go Eagles!