1 day late and 1lb less

So apparently being stressed makes you run faster...at least that's what I discovered last Wednesday. After taking bootcamp at 5:30a I decided to hit the road for a few miles. I didn't pace myself, just went and let my body do the work. My plan was to go for 4 slow miles. Just after mile 3 (good thing I happened to be near my car) I got a call to head to pick up my niece. As I stopped my running tracker, realized that I had smoked every run I had completed in the past. The previous week I just barely broke the wall of my "I can't get past 11:20/ mile even after 5 years" with a time of 10:58, but the two runs after that I was back in the 11's. Wednesday I had posted mile times of 10:37, 9:46 and 10:05 respectively! I was pretty stoked. :-) I do think that more diligent training, and the million squats we are doing are definitely helping. I am really excited to see where the next two weeks take me.

Saturday I was pressed to the max in our Slaughter class, and came out to the car only to find out that a dear friend, who has been a huge factor in my running journey had passed away a few minutes prior. This woman (affectionately known as Obby) opened her door, her heart and her family to me these last five years. Each year that I come down to Florida for the Breast Cancer Marathon, she houses, feeds and welcomes me as her own. I have known for the last few months that things weren't looking good, but with my dad being sick, I couldn't bring myself to travel down to see another grave situation. I kept turning a blind eye to reality, though deep down knew that I should've went down even for a night. A few weeks ago, I did finally bring myself to make plans to go "right after my half marathon," but now that trip will be for other reasons.

As I headed out for my long run on Sunday, both the soreness from training Friday and Slaughter Saturday, as well as emotions running wild thinking of Obby, my run sort of tanked. I left late, so the sun was beginning to really come out and I took off way too fast in an attempt to get the run done and prepare for dad's party. The first 7 miles were pretty solid and I was clocking in right over/ under 11min, but the last two were not so good. I didn't have enough water and began to dehydrate fairly quick, and by mile 8 was feeling pretty crappy. I did complete the 9 miles, but walked the last half mile to the car.

In better news, dad's surprise party was great. It may have taken nearly 31 years to pull the wool over his eyes about something, but he had no idea and was so happy to see people there for him. Hopefully this gives him a second wind heading into September. We are taking each day as it comes and are truly blessed that we are getting such great times with him.

AND after having a bad eats day last week, and splurging for the party I was still able to pull off a 1lb weight loss this week! I'll take it!

:-)