I have three things to tell you, it's a Thursday, so let's do this!
A big THANK YOU to Jodi over at Run Jodi Run for spotlighting me today. I've had so much fun getting to know her and am thrilled and honored to be part of her blog for the day! Read it here. You might learn a thing or two about me. :)
Yesterday was National Running Day. I ran 4.8 miles and added it to the Competitor.com miles reel. They were hoping to get 500,000 miles and ended up with about 12,000. Er...that's embarrassing! Did you know there's an International Mustard Day (August 5th, don't ask how I know)? Why shouldn't we have a Running Day?!? Mustard versus Running--I'm gonna be really sad if Mustard has more Facebook friends.
Summer has arrived! That means more frequent water stops while running, more time outside, a still-crazy-but-less-scheduled work life, and a few of my favorite things--painting (aka, finishing decorating) and staring longingly at the empty space where our back-ordered porch furniture belongs blowing bubbles with the kiddo.
I had absolutely no idea that it had been a week and a half since I blogged. Really. I'm not going to give you an excuse. I'm going to tell you the truth: I love my job. I absolutely love it. I love that it exhausts me mentally. And when that happens, I come home and I play with my kiddo, and then he goes to bed, and I get totally sucked into either running or scrapbooking. And then it's a week and a half later and I'm all, "what the crap happened? My blog claims it's been 10 days since I last posted." Here we are.
So lots has happened. Let's go numbered list.
1. I decided to use the RW 2-hour-half taper schedule. It's a 5-day-a-week plan, and unlike any taper plan I've ever used, it has me running 11 miles the weekend before the race. Does anyone do that? It also still has me doing speed work, which I'm pleased with. Luckily there's a 3 lap/mile outdoor track about 150 yards from my office. So yesterday I headed there over the lunch hour to do mile repeats. The track is owned by a university. In the middle of the second interval I saw the university's mascot walking toward me in full costume. As I approached it I said, "Come up, up high, show me some love." I totally high-fived a mascot in the middle of my interval workout. That's one way to make a track workout memorable!
2. I don't know her, but I read B.o.B.'s blog and enjoy it. She posted this video today. I definitely teared up when I watched it and decided it was worth re-posting. This is how I feel about marathons. The camaraderie shown, the excitement of it, the personal goals of runners.
3. Remember back in January when I joined the 1000 mile challenge group with some of the Team? Well, I said up front that 1000 miles was probably too much for me, so I was going to call it my 720 mile challenge. Well, I'm really happy to say that it looks like I'm on track to reach that goal!
592 + 4.7 + 9.2 + 3.2 + 3.2 + 4.5 = 616.8
Wait. Is it Thursday? Did I just post 3 things? Even if it was inadvertent, I guess it's still a Three Things Thursday. Go me!
I know, I know. A lot of you are totally consistent about doing Three Things Thursdays and/or other themed blog days. I am not. But from time to time I do enjoy participating. So here you go.
1. THANK YOU all for the comments about my taper. I know it's a necessary step. I know it's going well. I know I'm reasonably prepared for race day. So, per Coach Paula's instruction, I'm gonna chill out. :) 10 days to go!
2. Here's a quick glimpse into my life. #1: The little magnets at the top are from The Beastie. #2: The WV magnet under that is from The Original Bestie. #3-4: The two under that are because I'm a runner. #5: Penn State Forever. #6: Katrina clean-up, because I believe in helping people when they're down. #7: kdot, ODP, and the Princess of Detroit. *love them*
3. I'm considering the Martian Marathon in Dearborn Heights, MI in April. Well, the half actually. Does anyone know anything about it? Any MI people wanna meet up and run it with me? I'm undecided.
Here it is, your Three Things Thursday. Note: I'm switching from using initials to using nicknames for people. It's a fun twist. I'll put nicknames in italics for a while so it isn't confusing.
1. Our good friends who I'll call The Minnesotans had their baby this morning! She's a beautiful 8 lb. 13 oz. bundle of joy. Ears and I got to visit the happy family this afternoon. What an amazing gift. Mother & baby are doing well, and for that we areso, so thankful.
2. I am officially 10 days ahead of schedule on pacing! I did 4.1 miles today in an average pace of 9:16. I'm planning to do 6.5 this weekend and am hoping for a similar pace. Depending on how that goes, I may pick a new target pace and start working on it next week. I'd love to get down to 9 minutes eventually, but it's going to take some serious work, especially as long runs get longer.
3. That 4.1 miles brings my total mileage to 60 for the year. I am especially excited about this for two reasons: a) I'm on track to hit 80 by the end of the month, and b) IT WAS MAY 18 LAST YEAR BEFORE I HIT 60 MILES. Un-freaking-believable. I'm 3 months ahead of 2009 Joanna. And yes, I ran that 4.1 rather than 4 because I really wanted to hit the 6-0 mark. I'm a dork like that.
Side story from the gym (pretend this is part 3a). As I was walking back to my locker, I overheard a conversation between two moms whose kids were doing hockey practice. "I asked her what sport she wanted to focus on and she said crafting." Love it. It made me think of The Bestie, who I then called, because she comes pretty darn close to making scrapbooking a competitive sport. I also loved the idea of a little girl loving both. I love being both an athlete and a scrapbook enthusiast. Who says you can't do both? Since I'm on the topic, here's a link to my most recent project, still from our honeymoon to Alaska. It's a very unusual page for me, both because it has only one picture and because of the excessive layering.
