Monday: Happy Labor Day! I took my old Trek 470 Fast Track road bicycle into
Performance Bicycle for a tune-up and new tires today. I haven't ridden it in years... It's collected quite a bit of dust from just sitting in the basement, and the tires are dry-rotted. It was a gift from Santa way back in ~1995 and I used to ride it a good bit until mid-pregnancy (1998). I rode it occassionally after childbirth for a few years, but I don't think I've been on it more than a half-dozen times in the past five years. (A few years ago I purchased a cheap mountain bike for touring around the neighborhood with Kyra.) Anyway, about two weeks ago, a friend at work invited me to go with a small group of co-workers for a 40-mile ride on the
Silver Comet Trail. I couldn't go because of mommy duties, plus my road bike was in disrepair and I seriously doubt my butt could handle being on a bike for that many miles since I haven't done any distance riding in about a decade. But this invite, plus hearing Lisa talk about triathlons, got me interested in cycling again. Plus, I think it would be a great way to boost my exercise to most days of the week without over-doing the running. I dropped it off at the bike shop and they said it would be ready for pick-up on Friday. While there, I purchased a new riding outfit (padded shorts, top, and riding gloves. Yay!
After the bike shop, I went in search for
Vibram Five Fingers shoes. There has been a lot of talk on running podcasts and Twitter lately about running barefoot as well as these shoes. I know my overweight body needs more cushioning for running on the roads, so don't freak out. I've struggled with the challenges of running on the beach, though, and thought this may be the perfect solution. Running completely barefoot on the beach is great for short distances, but the sand rubs the soles of my feet raw for anything longer than about a mile. Regular shoes tend to sink too deep into the sand. Since I have a business trip to the beach coming up in a few weeks, I thought I'd purchase these and try them out. I bought a pair of
FiveFingers Sprint at
Abbadabbas.
I decided to take the dogs to the
trails at Stone Mountain Park this afternoon for a leisurely trail run. Guess I should have known that it would be crowded on a holiday afternoon. Since there were so many people leisurely walking, and I had both dogs to manage around the people, it turned into a mostly walk/hike with a little bit of running. Oh well, it was 3.25 miles on my feet on the trails with the pups, which is a heck-of-a-lot better than no activity! (In my
Patagonia Release trail shoes.)
Tuesday: I came home at lunch to take the dogs out since I still haven't fixed the hole under the fence and therefore, can't trust Tasha out in the yard without supervision. My lower legs are sore, especially near left ankle, and shin. I twisted my left ankle yesterday on the trail. My shins kept cramping so I walked more than usual. 2.73 miles total = 1 mile for Tasha + 1.73 miles for Riley. This evening, my daughter decided to break in my new Vibram FiveFingers for me. She loves them!
Wednesday: I decided to listen to my body and take a rest day since my shins were so sore yesterday.
Thursday: I'm on a business trip which started yesterday. I went to the
Shuron Inc. Superfund Site in Barnwell, SC. When I filled out my travel itinerary in our travel system, no hotels showed up in the list of options. The nearest hotels in the system were in Aiken, SC and Augusta, GA. I chose a
hotel located in Augusta, GA on the
Riverwalk in hopes of it being a great place to run. It was a nice place to run, but the riverwalk wasn't as long as I had hoped it would be. Two loops equaled 3.07 miles (and my shins are still sore). It was very beautiful running along the Savannah River as the sun was rising! I'm thinking about returning to Augusta for the
Augusta Chronical Half Marathon on November 1st. The medals from last year look like jack-o-lanterns, which would be a cool medal to have.
Weekend: I had planned to run a 12-mile long run this weekend, but couldn't fit it in. My daughter has horse riding lessons early on Saturday mornings and had her very first tennis match that afternoon. I would have had to start my run at 4:30 a.m. to get it in, and my body said it wasn't getting up that early on a weekend for a silly 12-miler. Sunday was busy with housework and errands. Oh well, I'll definitely get in my 20-miler next weekend!
Weekly summary:
Monday: 3.25 miles walk/hike/jog
Tuesday: 2.73 miles
Thursday: 3.07 miles
Days run this week: 3
Miles run this week: 5.8 + 3.25 walk/hike/jog = 9.05
Highlight of the week: taking my bike in for a tune-up + running somewhere new (Augusta, GA)
September 2009: 
My goal for the year (in January) was 200 runs, 800 miles, less than 12 min/mile average pace. I'm behind schedule. Having to take so much time off in March in April due to illness took a toll. Not sure if I'll be able to meet that goal, but should easily exceed last years number of days run (153). I seriously doubt I'll achieve the average pace goal since I'm doing a lot of long runs at slow pace, easy runs with dogs at slow pace, and trail runs at slow pace. Although I'd like to run faster, I'm enjoying slow runs with pups and on trails.
