Actually, Travers signed me up for my next race. But I'll get to that at the bottom.
I thought I'd go through a few of the fun things I got to do the past few Saturdays, all because I didn't have to do a multi-hour bike ride!
Two Saturdays ago we attended my company summer picnic. Now, I'm not necessarily saying that's better than a bike ride, but there were several things about the picnic that made it a good call in my mind:
1.) The giveaway- a beer cooler with isolated speakers + ipod connection. Who doesn't want a beach cooler that plays music?! I do. Also, a decent quality beach towel came with it.
2.) Archery- they let us shoot stuff! I was horrible, as expected.
3.) Unlimited beer + adult tricycles. Enough said.
To be honest, I really did wish I had a helmet. It was possible to roll the tricycles.
Then last weekend, we went to San Diego and met up with my sister! Most of the weekend was spent on the beach, although we did do a few other activities.
Hiking at Torrey Pines- awesome as expected.
And can you believe it? I got this girl to run! (a little)
Then, we closed out the weekend with an Incubus concert. How old is too old to go to a Sunday night concert, fly back Monday morning, drive directly to work, and work the rest of the week? 31 is too old.
Never would've done this on a Sunday night during IM training
Then this past weekend, we did a nice bike ride up Skyline for a solid 20 miler. I actually LIKE 20 mile bike rides. I don't really like 70 mile bike rides. It was really clear in the Bay and the views were amazing.
We rounded out our day with a whole lot of this:
Typical, I know.
So we have a half marathon coming up in October and I'm still not ready to return to structured training. I think this will be the first standalone race (not in the middle of a training plan) of this length that I am not planning a structured training for. I'm not too worried about it because I don't care about my time, and also I randomly did my first tempo run in 6 weeks and it was as if I had been running this whole time (funny how that works). However, I'll probably have a do a run longer than 7 miles at some point before 10/31 (haven't exceeded 7 since the IM).
And with that, I get to my next real race reveal- I'm signed up for the LA Marathon! I don't really want to race that many marathons in life (I'll always do Oakland for fun though, if I'm capable and not injured) (where marathon fun time = marathon PR + > 20 min), but I think I'll put in some work for LA. I haven't tried to race a marathon since 2012, and I think I'm a stronger runner now. And I think the only reason I'm this committed to it is because Travers is really into it, and eventually I'll stop sitting here lazily as he goes out running 6x/week. I'm only going for a 12 week training plan, but I'll be making it a tough one. It also means I have until 11/23 before I have to start training, so more fat drunk lazy time for me. More on my training plan in a future blog entry.
OMG so my teammate at work who is all of 24 was playing an Incubus song (she thinks she's a hipster or something) and I was like hey I love this band, I was super into them in high school! And she said, oh, this song must have been just out then! As in I was so old that her "retro" music was my actual music. But the worst part was that no, it was one of their later songs and not even the ones we jammed out to in HS. So that was awesome. I hope it made sense. I'm glad you're enjoying some well-deserved down time, and that you are even keeping your fitness! I'm doing a half next month too. God help me.
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes, your story makes total sense. I feel the same way when I hear Red Hot Chili Peppers on the classic rock station. And if she thought you were in HS during one of their more recent songs, it's a compliment on your youthfulness :) When in October is the Baltimore half? I bet you'll have fun with it!
DeleteIt should be noted I ran, but stopped often to take pictures, blow my nose (not on my shirt because I'm not a 'real' runner) and convince the local Wetzel's Pretzel to open early and sell me water.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm 30 and not only did I take the 5:30am flight back, but I went to two Incubus concerts the following weekend. I feel at 31 I still won't be over that.