Triumph, Success, Kick-Ass or: How I Ran 16 Miles. And the Weekly Weigh-In

Greetings!
Want to see something pathetic? Check this out:

Guilt
Well, here is your midweek blog post because I feel guilty at shirking my blogging responsibilities last week. That said, I don't really feel like I have much to write about here in the middle of the week. I caught you up on Sunday, didn't run on Monday, and I was on the track yesterday. Since I have alread posted et nausium about the importance of rest and taking days off, as well as my stupid track workouts, I don't really want to bore you with more of that again. I was elated to see the latest Runner's World show up in my mailbox last night, but I haven't had time to flip through it yet since all I ever do is read for school. I was going to bring it to work today to read on my down time, but I left it on the counter - boo!! :( So, I can't look through that for inspiration.

So...
What's a girl to do?

Do you know what that is? That was my attempt at writing a blog on Wednesday. I like how I stopped and asked a rhetorical question (which was really dircted at myself) and I couldn't think of an answer, so I just stopped. And then it got really fun, because I didn't run the rest of the week until today. Awesome, huh? I know what you out there are thinking. You're thinking "My! For someone who's training for a marathon, she sure takes a lot of weeks off. I wonder how that works?" Yeah. Me too. I need to go ahead and try NOT to do that again. I need to keep my mileage up. However, this week I really don't think I lost much because...

I Made 16 Miles My B*tch
Remember when I ran 15 miles a few weeks ago? Well, this wasn't ANYTHING like that. That sucked. It hurt. And remember how I had all those little lessons for you? Well, I listened to myself! I heeded my own advice. Now, this should give you warm fuzzies for 2 reasons, loyal blog readers: 1) you know I'm not out here feeding you crap. Some of the stuff I ramble about is legit and 2) you know I'm not lying for your benefit about how amazing my run was today because you know that if it sucked, I would have said so. No need for me to fluff myself up and make it sound like this is easy for me. Because it sure is not.

What do I think my keys to running success were today? Well, I made sure I hydrated yesterday copiously. I also pigged out at a 4 year old's birthday party yesterday (read: loads of pasta from Buca di Beppo, cookies, chips and salsa, and ice cream cake. Carb HEAVEN). I also made sure my toenails were clipped, BodyGlide was slathered in all the appropriate places, I was wearing my microfiber socks, and I had my favorite running snack option. God also helped out by providing a nice little cooling shower right around the 8 mile turn around. Glorious. Oh yeah, and Mr. Springstein happened to come on my iPod just as I was on my last half mile singing "Born to Run" That's amazing!

Did it still hurt? Yes. Was I still super excited when it was over? Definitely. But did I want to kill myself and die afterwards? No. Do I feel like I could have run another mile or 4? Probably if I had too. So, what I'm trying to say is: I'm getting there. I just have to keep myself from thinking about the 10 miles that come after the first 16 on December 12...

A Souvenir
Here's one fun little thing that did happen today that has never happened before:

I don't know if you can see that or not, but there's a nice red ring of ouch right where my sports bra top was sitting. Now, it's not particularly painful, just a mild annoyance really. Still, not something I want to deal with on marathon day. I think it's probably because my sports bras are all the cotton Champion numbers that were issued to me at good ol' Navy bootcamp 4 years ago. Seriously. And, being that they're cotton, and it was raining pretty good there for a minute, I bet I can blame the combination for my nice little battle wound. Luckily, this is easily fixed. I will go out and buy a sports bra that's NOT cotton. MuM told me her favorite these days is her Under Armor one, so maybe I'll give that a whirl. And then I'll tell you all about it. All the guys screamed "YESSSS!!!! I love to hear about sports bras!"

The Weigh-In
Holding steady at 133.0. I'm not bummed, because after I made it over the 135 hump last week, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted for 2 days (cheesey fries, pie, you name it) and then did not run it off over the week. So there you go. Holding steady, and I'm ok with that...for now. I just past the "Billy's Been Gone 4 Months" mark so that means I still/only (depending on how I'm feeling) have 2 months to lose 3 lbs and keep it off. Hopefully I'll see some progress next week.

More Excuses, In Conclusion
So, I know this blog has been lacking lately. I'm really going to try to start blogging more frequently (at least twice a week instead of the once a week that I've been stickin with lately). For those of you that don't know, I started grad school 2 weeks ago, which means that I made my life a LOT harder than it already was. You might not believe it, but it's hard holding down the fort without the hubs, even without kids scurrying about. So add to my household duties that I had already 3-hour night classes twice a week, and all the hours of reading that goes along with them, and I feel like I'm being spread pretty thin. In my life, 2 things cannot come soon enough:

1) Billy coming home.
2) This marathon to be over.

*Sigh* Someday. Someday.