It's OVER!!!!

Ok....It's not REALLY over, over....  But the toughest part of the training IS OVER!! 

Yup, somehow in the minus double-digit weather and snow we got a 19K run in.  That is the longest training run we have to do.  Our next LONG long run will be in Vegas.  And then NEVER AGAIN!!!  (or at least for a while)

Of course, 19K can't just go smoothly.  Poor Colleen had a major issue with hip pain and had to cut her run a little short.  Luckily, Gerilee is a better friend than I so she stuck by her while I just kept plugging along (in my defense...I didn't know she was hurt until the end!).  Because it was soooo cold, however, I did not stretch.  After a 19k run....I didn't stretch!  Boy am I paying for it now.  Today's (Sunday) run was harder than the 19K was, I swear.  I had to just hurtle myself at top speed down any hills because my quads hurt too much to brace them to slow myself down.  Going down stairs, sitting down, all hurts...  And tomorrow will likely be worse.

But, did I mention....IT'S DONE!!  The hard part is done!  I think I'm going to fall a little in love with the taper!

One Twenty Three....Almost Killed Me!

So, I was doing a fair amount of walking leading up into and at the start of my last week of vacation.  Whenever I go for a lengthy walk, a run or a bike ride, I always strap on my Garmin watch to track what I'm doing.  I then go to the dailymile.com website afterward to log what I've done and post it to Facebook (cuz I'm braggy like that)... The dailymile website keeps a running tab on the top of the # of km you've logged for the week so far...Sooo...being the dumbass I am, I thought "I wonder if I can do 100km this week?".  Once the idea has been planted...

So, the week looked like this - Monday 8k walk, Tuesday 5k run/8k walk, Wednesday 8k walk, Thursday 5k run, 8k walk...hmmm...my lower back is beginning to bother me a little...feels a bit tight... Friday 10k bike, 9k walk (yup, lower back not really very happy).  Saturday 10k run (owww...THAT hurt!)...and then it was Sunday...and I had 29km more to go!  Yikes...So, Sunday I decided to bike to Kimberley and back... STUPID...Not only is it more km than I needed...but I had that nagging back thing going on...  But I'm nothing if not stubborn...  Hopped on my bike and away I went.  Got as far as Marysville and was thinking this isn't too bad...not much farther to Kimberley.  Unfortunately, Marysville to Kimberley is ALL up hill...(which my back does NOT like).  Somehow I made it...painfully... Turned around, stopped at a picnic table for a snack and some water and coasted back down to Marysville...ahh...my back didn't mind that so much.  Then I remembered....the 3.5km hill I had to climb to get back to Cranbrook...and then the KILLER hill back up to my house...uggghh....but I did it...  Could barely walk by the time I got back...had to skip running on Monday because of my back....but I did it.  Worth it???  You betcha!  I beat my goal...123km in one week!  Woot Woot!

The picture below was taken at the official 100km mark!

New Challenge

Ahhh...gotta love Twitter.  So much information coming in - all in short little bursts of 140 characters or less.  Got up today to multiple tweets about Amy Winehouse's untimely demise (a little surreal that she now joins Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Kobain and Janis Joplin in the "died at 27" club).

Anyway, another thing that has entered my consciousness through Twitter is what some folks I am following have started doing.  They are tagging their tweets with #plankaday and giving details as to the number of planks and their duration that they complete each day.

So, somewhere in my less-than-brilliant mind a little voice said "what a great idea!"...  When I will learn to NOT listen to that voice, I don't know...but apparently now is not the time.  I have officially thrown my hat in the ring for the plank-a-day challenge (competing only against myself, of course).  My initial goal is to do at least one 60 second plank every single day between now and the end of my holidays (August 14).  Started off with a bang today.  Completed TWO 60 second planks.  Good thing no one was around during the second one.  Not sure those grunting and groaning sounds were really human-sounding.  But..I did it.  Now, however, I have a pretty tender lower back...Perhaps starting with one and working toward 2 is a better idea?

Tomorrow....10k and day two of #plankaday!