onepinkfuzzy

****UPDATED at the bottom****

I'm waiting for my friend Barb to arrive so we can head out the door for 14 (!) miles this morning. Here's some pre-run musings:

I've ramped up my mileage pretty quickly (at least my long runs) and am a little worried about how my body will respond. However, after today, my schedule will go back to normal (that is to say, I'll get Ash every other weekend, which means I'll get a long run every other weekend). So I won't be doing long runs every weekend. It'll give my body more time to recover (I don't think I'm quite fully recovered from last week's run). Turns out, no wonder I was so sore after last week's long run (I could barely walk for two days!): I did over 3600 vt ft of elevation gain! I've done that maybe 4 or 5 times - EVER. Which is why it's going to be a challenge for me to do Zane Grey, which is HUGE on the hills.

If anyone is planning on going to Zane Grey this year, please let me know ASAP - the race director has sent an e-mail regarding reservations in cabins at race headquarters, and if I don't want to be stuck in the dormitory (which I really don't want), I need a group of folks to reserve a cabin. I'm trying to get a bunch of people together to do so. Let me know!

When I am done with this morning's run, I will update this post with the results...

****UPDATE****
We did 14 great miles. I'm sore; it was tough at the end. After wandering all over Sabino (instead of just heading up and back twice on the road; it was storming in the mountains and I was worried we'd get stuck on the road if the water rose too high - I got to introduce Barb to new territory at Sabino!) and arriving at our car with 13.8 miles, Barb said, "Angie! If you don't get a full 14 miles, you'll be regretting it all day," and I knew she was right. Great motivation to keep me going to get the full 14. It was such an awesome run. Low-stress, lesser elevation gain/loss than last week, fantastic conversation. It didn't feel like we were out there for a few hours, it passed by so fast. I've had a smile on my face for the rest of the afternoon - it was a very satisfying run, a run that left me feeling content to my bones.

I get to take the next weekend off (I have Ash, so no long run), and the weekend following that, I'll be in Tempe cheering Chris on at a soccer tournament. The fantastic Phoenix run-bloggers have hooked me up with great suggestions and directions on where to run my scheduled 16-miler, and I'm totally psyched about it. At the end of the month is a scheduled 18-miler - I'll do a double-Phoneline. Barb has expressed interest in that (in trail running in general - she might go get some trail shoes and might do Zane Grey!), as has Renee, so it sounds like it might be a fun group run!

I need to do more mid-week runs. And more cross-training. The spinning has been good. I just need to do more! And yoga's fallen off; I need to add that back. I was contemplating some Pilates...we'll see how it all goes.

Chris and I have decided (apart from the New Year; this is not a resolution) we need to eat healthier and also eat at home more often (we ate generally every meal out). We've been saying it for a couple months, but now we're actually DOING it. We started the day after Christmas, and so far, so good. It's hard; we eat so vastly different from each other: I'm all about the low-fat and fat-free sugar goods or casseroles dripping in gravy-type sauces, and he's all healthy (he likes fish and he'll choose an apple over a fat-free chocolate cake - what's up with that?! (yes, that was facetious)). I'm picky - I don't eat many fruits or veggies. He's choosy and wants quality items (i.e. no gravy or casseroles). We've found a few things that we'll both eat: my tofu-and-veggie stir-fry, his blueberry pancakes and salmon spaghetti (yes, I ate fish!). I made a good basil-walnut pesto linguini last night that we both enjoyed. I'm spending a lot of time on allrecipes.com :) If y'all know of other good recipe sites, let me know!