this is why

So the Trek was cold and rainy and fantastic. All night at Sunday River I listened to the rain beating down (and to the 8 other people in the little dorm room snoring and tossing and turning) and thought about how horrible of a ride it was going to be. It would be wet and I'd be riding without my friend. But in the morning, I sat and ate my power bar and sipped coffee and chatted with strangers and started to get excited. I met up with Anne and found Ken, and we took off. I was drenched by the bottom of the first hill. But from that point on, I couldn't get any wetter so I just rode. I cranked up the 3 mile hill, and then just bombed down. My heart was pumping, the rain was pelting me, dirt was flying up into my face and I was laughing. The second 30 miles went by in a blur. I felt so good, I just kept pushing and pushing.
Saturday morning my legs felt pretty dead and I was afraid I'd pushed too hard. But after 15 or so miles, I got into it and felt good again. I rode alone and kept a comfortable pace. I did gorge a little on pizza and ice cream at the end, but I deserved it right? There was a great band playing, Sally and the Smelts. It was nice to just sit and sip a beer and listen. We ate an early dinner and then just sat and talked for a couple hours. I felt very comfortable with everyone the whole weekend. I'm fine being alone, but I never felt that I had to be alone.
Sunday we were up early again, and I started with Anne and Kim. I lost them fairly quickly, but ended up riding with a couple for a long time. I forget how brutal the third day is. The hills are relentless and the wind was against us. The 3 of us took turns pulling the other 2. I'm not sure how much we were really drafting, I think it was mostly mental, just having company. Ken came up as I passed the last rest stop, and we pushed it to the end. Like the first day, something came over me and I just was on fire. Coming down the final 2 miles, with people lining the streets cheering and screaming I was peddling as fast as I could. It was over too soon.
Every year I think about not riding because I hate raising the money. But every year I am so glad I do. Everyone riding is just so supportive and into making it a fun experience. It's hard, but not impossibly so. It's about doing what you can do, and having fun doing it.

Rainy forcast

I'm off to Maine this afternoon for the Trek Across Maine, which is a 3 day ride that I've done for the past 4 years. It's a lot of fun, but this year I'm not that excited. First, my friend Quincy that I always ride with just moved to Texas so she won't be riding this year. Her mom is still riding, and I know a few other people riding as well, but well they're all older. It's not the same as Quincy. We usually pass the time making up stupid songs and telling stories. Secondly, the forecast is for rain all 3 days. Yuck. 6-7 hours a day in the cold rain doesn't sound fun. I'm trying to be positive. It's 3 days off from running, which I need because my heel is still hurting a lot. And it's 3 days away from work!

Birthday ramblings

So today is the big day- the 25th birthday. It's a lot less exciting than marathon day. Particularly because today is a Monday and I have all day meetings. However I got 2 great birthday presents. First it was sunny on Saturday. It rained all of last week and Saturday's forcast wasn't good. All I wanted was a day at the beach. In the end I got it. We did get stuck in Boston for about an hour and half because of the parade, but made it to the beach by 1:30 and stayed until 5. I dragged 2 of my friends on a walk, which they claimed was too long (it was maybe a mile) and would have done more (walking, swimming, frisbee) but everyone else just wanted to lay in the sun. So I did too, and maybe that's good for me to stop once in awhile. Then we went to a great litte restaurant right on the water and sat on the patio and had beer and dinner, followed by ice cream cake at home.
Sunday, I went to my aunt's where I got present number 2- a garmin 405. This I had directly requested as my only big present from all my relatives. I love it! I was so antsy waiting for it to charge last night so I could play with it. I took it on a 9 mile run this morning. After 3 months without my nike i-pod +, it's so nice to have that feedback. It was a little discouraging too though because I wasn't going very fast! Still I felt good on my run this morning. I definately didn't have the empty tank issue I had last week. At my aunt's yesterday I had dark chocolate brownies, then I met my Dad for dinner at an Italian place that has the BEST rolls and dipping sauce. I had 3 rolls drenched in the olive oil sauce and then could only manage a bite of my BLT pizza. I recovered enough on the car ride home to eat 5 of the chocolate chip cookies my sister made. I refuse to feel guilty it's my Birthday!

A pain in the...... heel

So for the past couple weeks I've been feeling this twinge in my heels, especially my left heel that has slowly gotten worse. I'm pretty sure it's plantar fasciitis, which I've never had before. I've got the typical symptoms- it's worse when I wake up in the morning (which is of course when I run) or after a prolonged period of sitting (which is what I do at work all day). It's not unbearable, so I'm doing what I always do, running anyway. I'm always reluctant to stop running, especially since I'm actually seeing some progress with the weight-loss, I'm down to an even 140 pounds. But it's making my runs not much fun, and I'm starting to worry that I may be doing permanent damage.

biking=great, running not so great

I had a fantastic weekend of activity. Saturday I rode with my usual biking buddy to a homemade ice cream place and farm. It was a rolling 22 miles there and the sun came out half-way. It was nice to have slept in, had coffee and breakfast, and then be out in the air. I had an amazing small coffee heath yogurt ( I had to restrain myself from getting more), and then we ended up meeting up with another woman on the ride home. It was nice to have some new company and she really pushed our pace. Heather and I have gotten pretty complacent and just chug along at 13-14 miles an hour. Saturday though we averaged 15-16. I felt so great, that I decided to bike to get my hair cut after I got home (sorry again to the poor hairdresser who had to deal with my sweaty head), bringing my total for the day to 55 miles. Saturday night we went out to the bars, and I realized yet again how over that scene I am. It's not worth the money or the calories (both the alcohol, and the pizza that I inevitably want at the end of the night). So Sunday I slept in and then went out on my own for about 25 miles on the bike. I felt great again and would have done longer, but I tried a new route and ended up back home too soon. In the afternoon I took my kayak to the lake and had a nice long paddle. The real work-out though is getting it up the huge hill and back onto my car at the end. By that point I was sunburned, tired, and starving. So I had an early dinner (this very interesting grilled watermelon with goat cheese and basalmic that I saw on TV), and then fell asleep around 8:30. Super early even for me.
Then, this morning I suffered through yet another run. It was a combination of tired legs, the humidity, and the fact I hadn't eaten in like 14 hours. And, I planned a route that was shorter than I thought, so I was back in about an hour instead of the 80 minutes I wanted to do. It's hard to make myself run circles on the side streets, when I have seen my house. On the plus side, my weight was down when I weighed myself this morning.

back on track

So I'm doing much better with the eating this week. I've been making healthy lunches and dinners, and stopping at reasonable portions. Best of all, I haven't been snacking all night. So my conscience feels much better. However physically, I'm hungry, and I feel like my running is suffering. I run first thing in the morning, literally right after I roll out of bed. Sneakers on, contacts in, i-pod in hand, and I'm out the door. The smaller dinner and the lack of night time snacking though, means I have nothing in the tank for these morning runs. Wednesday I tried to do hill repeats. They were slow painful shuffles for the first 6, and I ended up walking half-way up the last hill. I don't think there's a good solution. I need to loose this weight, and I'm not going to get up earlier to eat and then let it settle before I run. Besides, if I ate breakfast at 6 am I would be ready for lunch by 10. Ideas?