Day 79/125 Shannon

Yes, I’m still here, and yes, I’m still clocking the miles. I just haven’t had the strength to blog about. Since Pam did such a wonderful job posting about our 16 miler with pics and all, I didn’t feel the need to “over-blog” her :).

I have been going through a wave of emotions the past couple of weeks. After my awful 14 miler a few weeks ago, I questioned my sanity about this whole 50k goal. But then after an awesome 16 miler that Pam posted about, I thought, wow, I can do this. There’s nothing to it, just make sure you properly fuel, take it easy on the hills, and you’ll do fine. Then last week I had an emotionally trying week, which in turn caused me to be stressed and very tired (found out my daughter lost her job, found out I have impingement syndrome in my left shoulder, our pet rat died, blah, blah, blah). I didn’t want to do a damn thing, let alone keep up my training. But, I did the best that I could with the energy that I had.

This past weekend was a cycle down week, which was greatly needed. Saturday was to be 10 miles and Sunday 7.5 miles at Diane’s FLTRS. Saturday was a lot of fun, Pam and I met at Karen’s Bakery in Folsom and set out with 2 other friends, Pam and Lynn. Not even a mile in on the trail and we hit a MAJORLY flooded area that we couldn’t get around due to extremely high berry (sticker) bushes. So we somehow made a path through the bushes and headed up to a higher trail. Needless to say we stayed on the bike trail until we got past the major flooding areas. It stayed relatively dry for us, so the run turned out to be a really nice one.

Sunday morning, I woke up tired, but headed out to Beale’s Point to help with the set-up of the race. I was feeling a little out of sorts, but did what I could to help. As it got closer to start time, something was said to me that really upset me. I can’t even tell you what it was exactly that was said because it was so quick and the subject was changed so quickly that I didn’t even have time to react. I felt the comment was unjustified and certainly in poor timing, what with me getting ready to start a race within 30 minutes. But, nevertheless, it was said and it really upset me.

I had a hard time getting started. Pam wasn’t there with me and I was out there by myself dwelling over the comment, not being able to focus on my run, but after a couple of miles I was able to tune into my iPod and just go with the flow. I was feeling really good, got into a really good groove, and went to the beat of the music. Then as I got closer to the finish line, my thoughts went back to the comment and the person and all of sudden I didn’t want to finish, so I struggled to get the last mile done. I finished in 1:34, not bad since my goal was 1:30.

Once again, my brain is going to be nemesis!! I’ve got to really work on the psychological end of this whole thing. I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that I no longer want my life revolving around my running (which it is), it needs to be the other way around. I will be glad when this training is over and I can go back to enjoying the run, when I want to run, spending more time with my hubby, and getting in some much needed golf!

Until then, the training continues with us doing 18 miles this weekend. We’re going to start at Twin Rocks in Granite Bay and either do an out and back or a point to point to the Auburn Overlook in Auburn. Either way sounds like a lot of fun as I’ve only run a portion of this trail and I always love to experience a new trail. Oh and I got a new Nathan hydration pack that I can’t wait to try out – woo hoo! There’s nothing like new equipment to get you excited about a run – LOL!

Here’s to staying dirty and enjoying the trails!!