My Cheating Heart

I feel a little like I am cheating on my lover with my new crushes. (You do know I am talking about running right?)

Yesterday I rode bikes with Steph. It was great fun and I had a blast. Tuesday I had gotten in a 16 miler and decided I needed a day off from running if I wanted to get a 18-20 miler in this week too. Besides, who actually rests on their off days? Not me.

I heard a rumor yesterday morning that Steph had a free 2 hour window so I coerced her into hooking up with me for a ride. I met her at her kids' school in Roswell and rode out towards Crabapple and then came back Crabapple Rd through Roswell proper down to the river. Rather than doing the same-old same-old loop along Azalea and Riverside we headed up Timberbridge to Little Willeo and that spit us out onto Johnson Ferry Road. We stopped by Big Peach for some GU and chatting with Kate, Todd and Joe. Kate is becoming quite the tri chica. Todd was lamenting moving up in the age group and getting older. And biggest news it that Joe is planning on doing the Chicago Marathon with aims of qualifying for the Olympic trials. Joe has been a verified fountainhead of training advice for me this past year and has politely and patiently answered all my inane racing questions. I wish him the best of luck in this new endeavor.

We chatted a bit too long because Steph realized we only had 30 minutes to get back to pick up the girls. We were over 14 miles in and after some discussion we guessed the quickest way back to Roswell was straight out Johnson Ferry Rd to Shallowford. I've ridden JF solo before and while it wasn't great fun it is manageable. Really, I was way more nervous about the curves and steep downhill on Childers Rd. In the end the hairpin turns proved not worth worrying about but the uphill after the bridge that never even occured to me until I was on it was the biggest bitch ever. All I can say is thank God we had stopped for some Gu's. Even still my quads were screaming something nasty at me.

The ride back was a mad dash. We covered the nine miles in just under 30 minutes. Not sure of overall pace--probably around 16-17 mph--both our Garmins suffered from inaccurate timing because neither of us are proficient in remembering to hit pause or start. Doesn't really matter. It was hard and I G-mapped it for the distance. I came up with 23 and some change. Best of all we made it back not a second too late. I cheered Steph on like she was in transition and told her to Go! Go! Go! Get Dags out of kiddie hock! I racked her bike (put in car) and got her shoes and shirt out.

Who cares what the other mom's thought?

And Steph, just think of it as practice for 2 bridges. Next time, (assuming you'll go with me) I promise to better plan the route and be more mindful of our time.

So the ride was a bit tougher than I had planned but totally worth it. I decided to switch my long run to Friday since yesterday was a harder "rest" day than I planned on it being. However, on today's rest day I not only cheated on my boyfriend again (but just a little) but I also screwed myself trying to make it up to him. The plan today was just to do an easy 6 miles.

It would seem that I have problems with running an easy pace on the treadmill. My mentality is to get it done and get it done as quickly as possible. And it has been a few weeks since I have run any run under an 8 minute pace so it did feel good to crank it out. I guess I let it go to my head. I was just enjoying the run and my new playlist that I just kept going. When I hit 8 miles I decided to call it a day-- though I definitely could have gone on. It was 8 miles in 57 minutes and 12 seconds. Felt awesome.

But as soon as I walked it out I started to feel the drag. Uh oh. I brilliantly thought a cool down swim make me rebound. So I headed to locker room and changed for the pool. I got about 600 meters in and decided if I still had any hope of having a decent run tomorrow I better get out of the pool. It was hard because the water felt so good and the swim just effortless. After running hard and then switching to swimming you feel like you are gliding.

I was little down for quitting the swim but it was the right thing to do. Hopefully I will have a nice long run tomorrow. If so, I'll reward myself and make it right with the swim on Saturday. All these boyfriends. What's a girl to do?

Oh and for those of you that do ipod and like me are always on the look out for new tunes here is my current On-the-Go playlist. Great for a ladder workout like I did today.

1.Clocks by Coldplay
2.Well Thoughtout Twinkles by Silversun Pickups
3.Ruby Sees All by Cake
4. The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth but Clap Your Hands
5.The Sunnyside of the Street by the Pogues
6.The Crane Wife 3 by The Decemberists
7.Kissing Families by Silversun Pickups:

8. Whisky in the Jar by the Pogues
9.I Still Remember by Bloc Party
10. Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups
11. The Underdog by Spoon:

12. Eyes by Rogue Wave: