I'm such a cliché!

I start a blog, get all excited about it, and then disappear!

I can't believe it's been more than two weeks since I posted. It's not my fault though! About two weeks ago, a huge project at work got even more huge and I got so busy with it! Fortunately, everything got finished up last week, so my life is getting back to normal. On top of that, our rec league kickball season was winding down last week and we had two games after work. It's been pretty insane!

Unfortunately, my running suffered during that time too. I think I only ran two or three times in the past two weeks! :-( At least I was getting some exercise from kickball and the occasional workout DVD or stint on the elliptical. I think it's OK though because it did give me a lot of good recovery time after the half-marathon on March 27.

So, I'm back now and just in time! This week marks the first official week of MCM training! This weekend I'll be doing 6 miles. I am super pumped to get back into the swing of things.

Friday after work I did a 3 mile run and it felt great! It was hot and humid and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but it felt awesome to be back on the pavement and sweating. There's something so awesome about accomplishing a tough run—regardless of how you do, just finishing is an accomplishment! I averaged a 9:59 pace on Friday and I was pleased with that since I hadn't been running much before and the weather was toasty.

Saturday I did some serious shopping. I bought a sweet pair of jeans from American Eagle—size 6 like whoa and I was so excited! I think the last time I saw that number on a pair of jeans was 3rd grade. :-) I also tried on a cute sundress at Target that I didn't buy because I didn't really have anywhere to wear it, but it was a SMALL and it looked really good. If I get invited to any pool parties or cookouts this summer, I will so be back at Target buying that dress. Other than retail cardio and a game of putt-putt with my husband, that was the extent of my exercise on Saturday!

Sunday I slept in, ate breakfast, and then headed out for a 6 mile run around town. I decided right as I set out that I wasn't going to push myself too hard. I was just going to find something comfortable, run with it, and enjoy the day. Sunday was a great running day. No clouds and temperatures in the upper 60s to lower 70s. Most of my run was on country roads and I could smell all the wild flowers and honeysuckles. The air was so delicious! I also saw (and heard) a rooster and got barked at by 3 dachshunds in a fenced in yard. I averaged 10:19, with my last mile the fastest at 9:40. Not too shabby for not trying too hard.

As someone who is firmly fighting the procreation bug right now (I'm 27 and every. single. person I know is with child or doting over her newly born child!), I was very grateful to celebrate I'm-So-Glad-I'm-Not-A-Mother's Day with a long run and no responsibilities to worry about! :-)

I also made a crazy decision this weekend. One of my friends is getting together a relay team for a 208 mile race in September and I agreed to be one of the 12 on the team! The race is the Blue Ridge Relay and I'll run somewhere around 16.5 miles over 3 legs in 24–35 hours. I am super, super, SUPER excited about it. It will be 1.5 months before the MCM, so I think I'll just count all of my relay runs as a long training run for that weekend (esp. since I'll be exhausted on my last leg—I doubt any of us will get much sleep and I could end up running one leg in the middle of the night)! I should have plenty of time to recover before MCM.

This race is going to be TOUGH. It's in the Blue Ridge Mountains, starts in southern Virginia, and ends in Asheville, NC. There are tons of rolling hills and one leg climbs 2000+ feet over 10 miles. I'm really hoping I don't get that one!!!

I'm going to be doing some serious hill training between now and September (which I think will be a big help for MCM) and I want to increase my speed. We have to average 10 minute/miles and I'm consistently a little faster than that over a 10K (my average is 9:40), but I would like to have some more cushion as a safety, especially with all the hills! I am so looking forward to this race, it's going to be a major challenge, but it will be awesome to be on a team.

I'm planning at least one trip to the Uwharrie Mountains in central NC to get a training run in and maybe a trip to the real mountains for a serious hill run. As one of the girls on our team said, "It's going to be epic."