People can be divided into three groups: 

those who make things happen, 

those who watch things happen, 

and those who wonder what happened. 

Showing up is 80% of life. 

–WOODY ALLEN

Hello and welcome to my first non-pity party post in a while. Today I woke up even more stuffy than the previous two days. I felt this sickness coming on, but today I got confirmation. The tense muscles I thought were from Krav Maga, yeah, now I am thinking they are the aches and pains that go with the flu. I was feeling pretty junky this morning, but throwing up in the drive way kinda sealed the deal on the flu question. Did I go back into the house and snuggle in bed? Nope. I felt pretty committed to go to my 8 mile trail run this morning.  I was actually pretty proud of myself for going as I am kinda chicken to do races alone. Other things no problem, races...um not so much. I felt totally yucky when I got there and it was freak'n cold. My feet were completely frozen for two miles, the numb kind of frozen. The good news is I felt like I was moving at a lovely 10:30 comfortable clip and when my watch beeped I was running sub-10. How cool is that? I suddenly felt better. Feeling better, didn't last long. I thought my mile 3 Chocolate Power Gel just wasn't going down with the ice cold water well, but at mile 4 the nausea I was feeling when I woke up had come back. This is not going to be a woe is me post. Actually I would like to tell you what I have learned over the last couple of weeks with my training and my long runs.

1	10:26	1	9:54
2	10:38	2	9:57
3	11:15	3	10:45
4	11:51	4	11:35
5	12:15	5	11:50
6	10:01	6	12:34
Total	6.0	7	13:22
		8	10:41
		.27	10:07
		Total	8.27

While it would have been great to "race" this, it was actually a training run. I am planning a flat half marathon on March 13th and I am terrible at getting my long runs in alone. My strategy? Sign up for races to substitute as long runs. I was truly a lucky girl to find a progressive trail series. A couple weeks ago the distance was 6, this week is was 8 and a couple weeks from now it will go up to 10, then culminate 3 weeks after that with a trail half marathon. If you are wondering, I will also be doing the trail half on March 26th also. I truly feel like the 10k to half marathon distances are my strong suit. They are long enough that I feel accomplished and short enough to be able to train for in a reasonable amount of time. Speaking of training....

In the 8 mile distance I moved at a faster clip my first 5 miles as compared to the 6 mile distance, but then I really lost it on the hills. Does my big slow down mean I went out too fast? I am still trying to understand proper training and pacing. I thought that in the 6 mile race I took the hills on a bit too hard and that it then made me slow down to a walk and that I walked way to long for recovery. Today I decided to run what I could, but to walk more often, but for less time each time. That worked well for mile 4, but by mile 5 I was allowing the mole hills to feel like mountains and walking very manageable hills. Yes I was feeling sick, but at the same time I know this was a mental challenge for me. Also if you look at the comparisons above I lose steam after 3 miles. My guess is that I need a longer distance run mid-week. If I am running 2-4 miles at a time during the week, of course my body is going to feel done after 2-4 miles in a race. I have a longer distance run scheduled for mid-week and every other week it incorporates some speed work, but I just haven't been sticking to that run. The first thing I need to do is step it up and stick to the schedule.  The good thing is is that I can turn it up at the end and I like that doing it at the 6 mile race wasn't a fluke. I really can dig deep to finish strong, yay me! The major reason I was able to do it at the 6 mile race was a Tri Club member basically pulled me. Today it was a complete stranger. I chatted with said stranger and another friend of hers after the race. I remember the other girl from the 6 mile too and presto, I now will have two familiar faces at the 10 mile race. Runners are a pretty cool crowd.

The other thing that I need to work on is stretching. Early this week I felt some funkiness in the left knee and after the 8 miles I felt some tightness deep in my left tush. I do not want to injure myself. I.NEED.TO.STRETCH.REGULARLY. The third thing I need to do is focus more on my hydration. I was really dehydrated a week or so ago, then this sickness started coming on. I felt like I was drowning myself in water. Now I know I should be taking water more frequently in smaller quantities throughout the day vs. downing a water bottle at work and then another on the drive home. Taking care of myself is important and I need to make it more of a priority.

I need help. How do I learn to be stronger in the middle of the race with no one around to pull me? I will tell you I have considered music, but I just don't feel right listening to music on a trail run. The other thing is today it was supposed to rain, it was gorgeous, but had it rained wouldn't my iPhone/iPOD get soaked?

Why I Kick A$$: Because I show up rain or shine, flu or no flu.

Thankful Three

1. For Muddy Trail Runs
2. For Saltine Crackers
3. For My Couch