Blown away.

Thankfully, when I woke up this morning, it was sunny. Not warm, but sunny. However, during my run, I encountered some hurricane like winds (I swear I'm not even being dramatic). I've run in all sorts of weather since my training has begun. I've run in sunny 70 degree Florida, a legit snow storm, below freezing temps, rain, rain, some ice and some more rain and today a lot of high gusty winds. I was, of course, running into the wind during my last 10 miles so I felt like I wasn't moving at all. I have decided a windy day on April 19th will be the worst to run in. If its 90 degrees and windy, then I might just have to call it a day and jump on some cute cop's motorcycle and ride the whole way to the finish line. But, at least now, I feel prepared to run in all sorts of weather.

Anyway, enough about the weather. I had a pretty bad experience at the end of my last long run so I was hoping for the best today. Besides the hurricane (yes, I'm dramatic) I got through my 18 miles in about 2 hours and 45 minutes and didn't have much pain at all during it. Afterwards, however, was a different story. My stomach was a mess AGAIN, I seemingly lost about 4lbs of water weight and my knee (IT band perhaps?) and shin were killing me. Some pain pills (don't worry, the legal kind), h2o, and some TLC though and I'm feeling much better. I have to say though, even though running 18 miles is awesome to me and something I thought I could never do, I wonder what all this training is doing to my body both inside and out. I'm just gonna keep telling myself "We are born to run" like the author Christopher McDougall states and hope I can keep this mentality until the day of the race.

Lastly, as March approaches, here are some updates on the goals I had made back in February. Someone this week told me they were impressed that when I set my mind to do something, I always do it. These updates might sway that view just a tad. ;)

I had said I would......
1) Eat healthy 90% of the time. Hmmm....let's make that about 60% of the time, maybe 70%. Due to some "bad days" at work and some other stress, I might have gone off the chocolate wagon more times then I'd like to admit and I really did enjoy the subs VWow and I got this week. I'm gonna try harder on this one though, really.
2) I will not drink alcohol on the weekdays. I have broken this rule twice...once for a dinner party and once for a bday night out for a friend. I'd have to say, this isn't that hard though. I think it is something I will stick with after the marathon. Maybe. Maybe not.
3) I will lose 10lbs by marathon day. I've lost about 5 so I think this one is attainable. I've also gone down one pant size. Will I be able to maintain this after the marathon? Let's hope so. I plan on keeping physical fitness a key part of my life. Who wants to be my lifelong exercise buddy? I'm taking applications! :)
4) I will run more hills. I have run at least 2 hills on all of my runs. I plan to run the actual heartbreak hills at least twice in March. However, I still can't stand hills. Some people say they love them. Those people are lunatics...or actual, hard core, real runners.

So, needless to say, I have slacked on some of the above goals I had for myself. However, I'm a big fan of the quote, "if at first you fail- try, try again." I don't think I'll ever give up trying.

Now where did those cadbury mini-eggs go......