ROUTINE

With Jersey Dad back in Jersey and our lives slowly going back to our old routine, I decided I am letting my hard earned fitness go by the wayside. Less than 3 weeks ago I ran 50 miles and now it seems that running 7 miles is daunting. It's all a mental game and my plan is to conquer it.

Without my Wednesday night Fleet Feet Training Group, I am left with finding my own time to squeeze in runs whenever I can. Vans has mountain biking on Wednesdays so that day is out and better spent with the Peanut. However, I have been able to squeeze in 3.5 mile runs during my lunch hour. Yesterday I ran 3.5 inbetween rain storms and it felt great. I'd say these runs are a faster pace and only because I am rushing to be done, home and cleaned up before heading back to the office. Why haven't I done this before? I am hoping that even in our 105 degree summers that I will be able to fit in a few of these during the week. It is nice to get my workout done early. Pre-Peanut I used to be an early morning runner . . . now I cherish any sleep I can get.

I am also planning to also reconnect with my Buffalo Chips group for their Tuesday night speed workouts. I've been doing this for years but when I started training for Way Too Cool and AR50 I was forced to quit Tuesday nights in order to give Vans a night to himself. Now, I am thinking I'll return. I have such a love/hate relationship with speed work. I can't deny its benefits in my training but it generally is a painful process, at least in the beginning.

Thursdays are my Folsom Lake Trail Series races which I look forward to usually. It seems the 6/7 mile race is a lot harder than the 3 mile ones I did last year. Still, it's a great workout. It kind of feels like a tempo run because everyone is just blazing and no one wants to be left behind. Tonight will be interesting since I haven't been running much and my energy is way down. The entire trailmomma household seems to be on low energy these days although the Peanut is bouncing back faster than her parents.

And finally, I did it. I officially signed up for the Western States Training run on Memorial Day weekend. I signed up for day one, the longest day, with a scheduled 32 mile run on some of the toughest parts of the Western States course. I have never run these sections before, although I have been to Devil's Thumb and hiked down it. Brutal.

With that training run on my schedule now, it means I need to actually do some quality running between now and then. I am hooking up with Pigeon again this weekend and heading out to Brown's Bar with some of the Folsom Lake Trail Runners. I have never run these trails before and we're planning to do about 16 miles total. I learned my lesson last weekend and will definitely eat and sleep better Friday night. I figure with all these little afternoon runs, tempo and speed runs and long runs on the weekends, that my goal to shed a few of the pounds I haved gained post AR50 (ahem, I call it my ultra-celebration gain) will be a bit easier. Let's just say I've been celebrating and replenishing longer than I should have after that ulta.

I'd like to blame it on Chef Peanut but really, I can never find anything but joy in that smile.

Ironically, she doesn't eat fruits OR veggies.