The "This Is Not About Italy" post

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Although you'd never know it from my Facebook page and this blog, there are other happenings in life versus reliving the Italy trip. A quick recap to bring us all up to date: 

  • This Saturday is the 24-hour run at Hinson Lake. You know, there's a fine line between "bad ass" and "dumb ass" and 24-hour runs are a balancing act.  Last year I ran 54 miles in 11 hours. This year I'm aiming for 70 miles and lasting until midnight. Bored Saturday and looking for something to fill the hours? Come run with me. And bring chocolate. 
  • THE BOOK. Does This Collar Make My Butt Look Big? A Diet Book For Cats is due to my editor October 1st. My writer's group has been handing me feedback all week and I'm in a mad scramble to rip the book apart, incorpurrate (sorry, job hazard) their suggestions and get it out on time. Stress level = 8, but I'm having fun. I do my best work when I can see the finish line. 
  • New Clients. Sensing my absence from the country, several new clients popped up while I was away.
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Fun Fridays Come To An End

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It's Labor Day weekend, which means not only will I eat my weight in veggie burgers and Ezkiel sprouted grain buns, but it signifies the end of Fun Fridays. Tomorrow Blair returns to his normal 5 day work week and Fun Fridays will be but a memory. 

But what good memories! This summer we: 

  • Rode monster roller coasters and managed not to throw up on each other or others waiting in line at Carowinds
  • Visited the town of West Jefferson where we locked our keys in our car and visited the cheese factory while we waited for AAA to arrive
  • Did a walking tour of downtown Greensboro
  • Spent a week at Hilton Head Island
  • Traveled to Boone where Blair ran the Grandfather Mountain Marathon
  • Had our niece Katlin here for a visit and cooked a whole fish (It was epic.)
  • Took our nephew Logan and my mom ziplining.
  • Paid a quick visit to Mount Airy then welcomed our long-lost NC friends Anne and John and their wonderful kids for a visit
  • Spent a weekend at Wrightsville Beach
  • Caught up with Blair's good friend Bill whom I hadn't seen since he was a groomsman in our wedding

And what did we do on this, the LAST fun Friday of the season? What could possibly top a summer of such fun?

Why -- beer and nachos on the outdoor patio at Village Tavern. Can't ever get enough.

It's been a fun summer. Thanks for tagging along with us through the blog. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

Cheers,

Dena

 

Race Training

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Many of you (okay, one of you) have asked how my race training is going. It made me realize I haven't said much about running since I posted this whiny entry back in June. 

The good news is the sore ankles went away, as did the heavy legs. I've still got the right hamstring/glute issue but I've been dealing wtih that for the last four years, so it's more of a white noise pain at this point. 

I'm wrapping up week 6 of training (10 weeks still to go) and just came off an awesome 20 mile run this morning. I got to mile 16 and was like, "What up? That's all you've got?" and pushed out 8 minute miles for the last four. Hell yeah. 

That being said, I struggled through a 17-mile run a couple of weeks ago and had a COMPLETE meltdown this week on a tempo run.

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What do Deer and "Hell Yeah!" Have In Common?

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I was talking to a friend the other day about living joyfully. Writing, relationships, exercise, chores... everything in life flows so much smoother on the days I approach life with a playful "let's just see what happens here" type of excited expectancy. I think the Universe works to bring us what we want when we don't spend so much time and energy fighting for what we think we need. 

I was thinking about this on today's trail run. I've been doing a trail run once a week after I work out with a friend. We work upper body for about 45 minutes and then I run. Last week, I was miserable. My arms and shoulders hurt from the workout and I brought this into my run. My mantra that day was something along the lines of, "Ow, this hurts, this sucks, I'm not going to make it."  Guess what? I had a crappy run, walking a good part of it. 

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