Update

I have apologized time and time again for not blogging very frequently, and yet again, life gets in the way. My soccer season ended on January 29th and on January 30th I began officially coaching track. The head coach is a friend of mine (who coincidentally also went on the AVID trip last summer in Dallas) who teaches math at my school. I've talked to him numerous times about running and come to him with training questions, as he was a collegiate runner and just recently started running half marathons (to the tune of breaking 1:20!!!). He approached me about coming on board the track coaching staff in mid-January and I told him I'd have to think about it. I was concerned about not having enough to time to train for a spring marathon (which I usually buckle down and do this time of year). He assured me I would get in quality workouts with the distance runners (he wanted me to coach girls' distance) and it would be easy to just tack on a few extra mile here and there if needed to. So I hopped on board and have been insanely busy (and in shape!) ever since.

Training-wise, track is a whole different ball game. I was not used to the intensity of 3 hard workouts per week. The mileage is much, much less than I'm used to with marathon training, but it's so intense! We started our season with pretty much 4 weeks of hill training. We did long hills on Mondays, short hills on Tuesdays, interval workouts on Saturdays (yes, Saturday morning practices every weekend!) and longer, easier days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Fridays being completely slow easy days. I had just come back from my hamstring injury when track started. I jumped right in and pounded it hard for the first 3 weeks. Insanity! I was so proud of how quickly I got back into shape. (I should also mention we lift weights as a team Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and do 30 minutes of core strengthening on Tuesdays and Thursdays BEFORE practice starts). But my body was like, "um hang on a minute...not used to this...." I started having aches and pains that wouldn't go away and last week I got sick.

So after reevaluating the situation (with the help of my sports counselor, Joy) I decided that a) I am not 16 anymore and b) I need to take it easier or I would get REALLY injured and be out of commission for more than a day or two. So last week I took off a few days, went easy on the days I did run, and got over my sickness and felt pretty good this week. We have moved out of our "hill training" phase since meets have started and I am able to run the most of the workouts with the kids. In fact, this morning we had an interval session at the park and I felt pretty good the whole time. I love running on the trails in the desert (which we do most days) and it's especially nice with my new Garmin training watch (thanks JDawg!). My girls (many of whom are new to running) are doing great. We placed 2nd in our first tri-school meet on Wednesday. I am looking forward to seeing the kids progress throughout the season. My training, on the other hand, has turned into "just keep up with these kids!" and I am not planning another marathon anytime soon. I'm thinking long-term, maybe Vegas in December if things work out this summer and fall but for now, nothing on the books for me.

In other news, Keeper cooked me an awesome lobster dinner last week for my 29th birthday (see pic below) and I used Mom & Dad's present to get my first-ever real massage (amazing) last Sunday. Keeper is in the swing of Quarter 7 and is spending this weekend at his fourth (and final) business training seminar. We are eagerly awaiting a string of spring visitors!!! First up, the Tillinghammers next Friday-Tuesday. We can't wait!!!