Tuesday it is.

Last night I had a lovely time at dinner with a good friend from Atlanta who is in town for work. It was so wonderful catching up, talking about how hot it is here in Orlando, and how we miss each other living in different states now. In the course of conversation, my 70.3 came up. And she and our other good friend have decided that they are going to go to Augusta for the race! I couldn't be more excited! The three of us had been as thick as theives pretty much ever since we met one another at a sorority alumnae association meeting in Atlanta about 8 years ago. You know this is the truth because the rest of the alumnae association referred to us as "the triplets" after a short time and we adopted the name for ourselves. Half the time we showed up wearing the same color top as one another without even talking to one another that day. So to say the least, it was extremely hard to leave them in Atlanta when we moved to Orlando. So happiness abounds.

Unfortunately, the tapas place we ate at, while good going down was not necessarily so good to me the rest of the night. It has stayed down but must have been greasy without my knowing it because my stomach this morning almost rejected my oatmeal square cereal which is my absolute favorite cereal in the entire world (and is actually good for you too). But survive I did.

After soothing the savage beast that was Ladybug this morning (she again is keeping herself up late... I heard something that sounded like a sheet being fluffed in our living room around 10:30 pm. I wander out to see Ladybug making a little "bed" for herself on the floor! I told her she needed to go to bed and go to sleep and she picked up her sheet, said "come on bear" and grabbed her white teddy bear and headed back to her room.), got Angelfish dressed and properly loved on, and everyone out the door, I headed off for my 4 mile run. Today I was supposed to run mile 1 as a warm up and it was to be my slowest of the 4 miles. The rest of the miles were to be in zone 3. I'm running along somewhere in the midst of the 2nd-3rd mile definitely in zone 3 and this guy who I have seen running around the neighborhood PASSES me. For whatever reason, the fact that this guy passed me really got my hackles up (like I own the sidewalk or something). I tried to run a bit faster but the man was too fast for me. It was mildly depressing but then I reminded myself that while I'm not that fast of a runner that I can get it done, which in the end is all that matters. I also reminded myself that I was doing great being out there with pain in my leg and lower back and running in zone 3.

Well, it all paid off. I know I ran my 1st mile pretty slowly, and while I'm not sure what my other miles worked out to be time wise for each, but my average pace for all 4 miles was 10 minutes and 37 seconds. I was thrilled!

Now it is a full day of work and trying to put together my to do list of things that needs to be done around the house, for the girls' birthday party, etc. I'm already on #23 and I think I'm leaving some stuff off. Some of it is stuff that really doesn't have to happen this week, but I'd sure like it to.

Of course, maybe I need to try to lessen my stress levels. Yesterday I went for my 1st blood pressure check of the week at the doctor's office and it was 136/90. Not good. Now the doctor wants me to have the rest of them checked at the fire station so they can see if I'm fearful of the doctor's office. I teased the nurse that if the firefighters are too attractive my blood pressure might go up too. She thought that was pretty funny. Bascially though, they're threatening me with blood pressure medicine. Just what I need, another thing to show I'm getting older. I'm not old though. I'm only approaching my mid-30s but right now I'm feeling like I have the body of an elderly person. But this too shall pass. Tomorrow I have to get my blood work done for my cholesterol levels - also in response to a threat for cholesterol lowering medicine.

Bad genetics are not fun. I hope I didn't pass all this on to the little ladies. But better to have life (even with silly genetics) than not... and I did get a lot of great genetics too. I'm just hoping that they will have more of the great ones than the not so great ones. Either way, we'll have to make the best of it!

58 minutes!

It may not be a world record, but it's freakin' fast for me! I just finished a 7 mile run (in the wind no less, although I have to admit it's died down quite a bit since this morning) a few minutes ago. While I was running tonight, I felt, well, fast. It was the fastest I can ever remember running. Despite the pain at the beginning from my shins, I refused to walk. I felt good, great even. 7 miles in 58 minutes for me is unheard of. I didn't even have to trick myself with silly banter about what I saw on my run. I did sort of put together a blog entry during the last 1/2 mile or so though ... it went something like this:

Thoughts while running 7 miles on a cool, windy day:
1. When it's colder my thighs still rub together...
2. but between the breeze and the body glide it's not that bad...
3. and getting myself able to run 7 miles has decreased the surface area that rubs.
4. When the wind blows the hardest, that song with the chorus "running against the wind, still running, running against the wind" involuntarily plays in my head...
5. evidently even my subconscious is a comedian.
6. I run even when my shins are in pain...
7. because I'm either a glutton for punishment or I'm crazy...
8. I guess it depends on who you ask.
9. I think people who run marathons are nuts...
10. but sign me up for a triathlon whose mileage adds up to more than a marathon...
11. I'll love it and ask "when's the next one?" when I finish.
12. I'm not a likely triathlete...
13. I have extra poundage, twins, endocrine system problems, asthma, high cholesterol, a slightly degenerated disk in my lower back, recurring shin splints, and one shoulder lower than the other...
14. that's why I laugh when people tell me that they could NEVER do a triathlon...
15. I do it because my brain tells me that I can... and I believe that little voice in my head.
16. I also do it for money - not for me, for cancer research so that I can endure for others.
17. When I started Team in Training for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I wasn't sure I could do it... Mr. Darcy wasn't either... he kept saying "do you know how far that is?"
18. Then he reminded both me and him that "one thing I know about you is that when you decide to do something, you do it." And that was that.
19. Cancer sucks. Cancer research will some day find a cure. I believe it in my heart of hearts.
20. And how cool is it to think that maybe some of the money I raise will have helped make that happen.
21. When I looked at the Team in Training schedule when we first started training, I saw the day with a 7 mile run on it (today) and panicked.
22. This week when I looked at it, I just saw another day to better my "farthest run to date" again.
23. I actually like this running thing...
24. and I feel really fast today...
25. I'm done? Already?

So not only did I run farther than I've ever run in my life tonight (7 miles), but I did it fast (58 minutes!!). How about them apples?