Maybe...

Today has been a good day.  Hell, this week has been a good week!

• Had a friend, V over for dinner last night.  Good company, good conversation, great food.  She brought her chocolate lab with her.  Everyone, including the pooch had a fabulous time.
• T and I have decided to take a vacation.  An actual vacation where we go somewhere and do something fun.  No continuing education meeting.  No races to run.  Idea for this was planted Friday night at dinner with a bigger group of friends.
• Looks like we'll have company on said vacation.  V, at least, is joining us.
• I had a great run today.  More on that later.

So, this vacation (as you can see the counter over on the right) has gotten T and I really excited.  It truly has become the light at the end of the tunnel for me since we decided to do it Monday night.  Where might we be going you ask?

Home.  

Yep, you heard me correctly, home.  We're going back to the PNW for just over a week.  Enough time to see T's Mom in Seattle for a few days and to spend some time back in Oregon.

Today's run was just what I've been needing.  As each mile ticked off it seemed as if a little bit more of the emotional baggage life has added to me lately just started falling by the wayside and it became easier and easier to run.  Maybe, just maybe, my running mojo (which just so happens to be a huge source for all of my mojo) might be returning.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

For The Record

I hate Wednesdays in January and February. Loathe them.

Why?

Well, I'm not a fan of 12 hour days. Wednesdays in January and February mean 8:30 a.m. - noon baseball practice, followed by the middle distance runners workout (usually around 2 p.m.), followed by track practice at 3:15 p.m. The really fun part is Wednesday happens to be basketball game day as well.

Now I only have to be here for the home games, but it seems like every Wednesday we've played at home. I cover the women's games that start at 6 p.m. if there is a double header or 7:30 p.m. if it's just them. Usually takes about 1:45-2 hours to play the game.

Makes for long days. But, at least basketball season is almost finished. Just need to make it to spring break in 3 weeks.

Could It Be That Simple?

First of all, to answer your question Cindi:

I'm still using Pfitzinger's 55 mile per week, 18 week plan (from the first edition of Advanced Marathoning) with some modifications.  My previous post showed how I'm switching the days of the week around and I've also switched some of the quality works based on this article.  I've taken the lactate threshold work and moved it into the last phase/mesocyle and moved the VO2 max-interval work into this phase/mesocycle.  Keep checking here for how it is going.

So how is it going you're probably asking?  Great.  Today's run was supposed to be 10 miles with 5x1000m at 5k pace with 2 minutes recovery.  I only managed 7.5 miles and the 5x1000m.  I was running on the indoor track at school.  1 mile = 9 laps.  Yep, I ran 68 laps around that damn thing today.  Hit my time on every one of those 1000m segments and got all 5 of 'em in a total time of 24:35.  Which just happens to be 48 seconds faster than my 5k PR time (long story:  my 5k PR is soft.)

But the question I really want to answer is the one in the title to this post:

I got to work early to get my run done.  I had to take stuff to shower and clothes for the day.  I didn't have time to take a lunch so I had to make a trip during the day.  I had the normal number of athletes needing to see me (with some new ones thrown in for good measure).  Work has been stressful here lately.  But today?  Not so much.  Mood was better.  Attitude was better.  Why?  My conclusion?

Because I ran.  Could it be that simple?  I think it might just be.

Change of Schedule

After much contemplation (or wasting time) I've decided to change up my running plan/schedule.  I know, I know, I'm 6 weeks into the training plan for Toledo and only have 12 weeks until race day but I'm not having a lot of success with the current schedule because it conflicts mightily with my work schedule.  It's too late (and too much food and beer yesterday) to make the change this week so I sat down and plotted out the next four weeks.  It now looks like this:

Monday - easy/recovery run

Tuesday - quality workout (intervals/tempo run)

Wednesday - OFF

Thursday - easy

Friday - OFF

Saturday - easy

Sunday - long run

Wednesday and Friday were the problems because I have to be at work earlier on those days - 8 am on Wednesday and 10:30 am on Friday so it leaves me less time to get my run in.  Wednesday it was damn near impossible and I always felt rushed on Friday (no comments from you people with regular jobs okay?  'cause this time of the year my Wednesday goes from 8 am until around 9 pm).

With these changes, and the fact that the weather is actually supposed to warm up this week I think I'll stand a better chance of success.  I'd better be successful because 12 weeks ain't that long.

Not As Bad As I Thought

I was pleasantly surprised to see my mileage numbers for January.  116.  While I was slogging through the month I felt very much like Sisyphus.  Missed a few runs (okay, more than a few) but at the end of the month things started to come together.  I had a great run outside on Wednesday, yes outside, and the sun was even shining.  Then being the geek at heart that I am, I looked at January 2008's total.  122.  Only six fewer miles.  Not too shabby...as long as the boulder doesn't kill me the next time it rolls down hill.