A Little of This and a Little of That

Thanks, everyone, for your comments, messages and phone calls of congratulations to both of us since the Marine Corps Marathon. We're still coming down from that trip both physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I basically took all of last week off from early morning workouts and slept in until the sun came up (which was after 7:00am until the time change over the weekend!) It felt wonderful to wake up naturally with nowhere in particular to go and no fitness goal to achieve. Some mornings I just stretched, or went for a walk. Other mornings, I read and finally started to catch up on my blog reading.

On Saturday, I ran (or attempted to) for the first time with Thon, Richard and Amy. What a beautiful morning it was and what a blast it was to meander along the streets of Lake Austin Blvd, Scenic and Pecos with nothing but laughter, politics, and conversation (and about a 12 minute pace). The weather in Austin this time of year is absolutely spectacular...Cool sunny mornings that turn into the mid-80s by days end. It certainly is the reward for surviving the relentless heat of the summer. 

On Saturday,  Shawn and I spent a day out at Lake Austin Spa and Resort for more pampering and relaxing. Massages, foot massages, pedicures, lunch and an afternoon by the pool with a trashy book. Seriously, a Doctor could not have described better medicine than this. They even have a lap pool, which we took advantage of and swam for about 30 minutes. Nothing fancy, just some nice slow laps.  

Sunday was the day of accomplishments--doing all of those tasks we've been ignoring for the last month...organizing files, paying bills, laundry, selling crap (I mean really useful items) on Craig's List, major grocery run, cleaning the house, Goodwill run, researching some stuff on our never-ending "we need to Google that" list, and even finding time for a 6-mile jog followed by a 2 mile walk. Nice... That extra hour sure made a difference, even with the early sunset. 

I also booked a flight to Phoenix for the weekend of IRONMAN ARIZONA!!! That's right, I'm so excited to go back to the scene of my season opener and cheer on my fellow T3ers (and the 1800 others) who are going to literally smash that course to pieces! I tried to sign up to volunteer, but even that is closed. I will, however, be cheering like nobody's business for these extraordinary athletes. I'm always so inspired by the heart and will to accomplish an Ironman. There is no substitute for the work and the final payoff.

Finally, my last race of the year looks to be the Sunmart 50K Trail Race in Huntsville, Texas on December 9th. I did this Ultra last year and had a phenomenal time. Literally and figuratively. I ended up (rather surprisingly) finishing 8th overall female and 2nd in my age group. Seriously, I was just going out to run 32 miles. Never underestimate the power of starting slow...It certainly paid major dividends that day. We'll see how it goes this year. Again, it's a little bonding day with Amy and a few other T3ers who were so easily talked into doing an ultra-marathon...cuz 26.2 just isn't long enough.

Time to start easing into some cross training workouts again...I actually went to a spin class this morning at the gym. An actual spin class on a spin bike. Weird, but a good change of pace...I must admit, I was strange not hearing Coach Pain shout out some impossible cadence. Oh well...that will come later this week. I finally took the Longhorn 70.3 race number off my bike. Yep, it's been a month since I've been on it. Time to hop back in the saddle. 

Ironman CDA training is right around the corner after the holidays. Until then, I do what my heart and body tell me...not what the schedule dictates.