Successes and other disasters

A month since the last posting - it's been a month of ups and downs. Good weeks and bad weeks. It's a little more than three weeks from race day so no excuses - I CANNOT slack off. I say that knowing entirely well that I've missed a 4-mile easy run today, but also knowing that I'll do it tomorrow. My plans for tonight were to play golf, until 5:30 when I find out that the rain has made the organizers of the tournament reschedule.

So, the running run-down.
Week 5 - 4-6-3-8
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (Friday) runs went well. I was on vacation that week and enjoyed being able to do the runs at any time of day and really didn't do much else on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday I spent the day in NYC, fell down some stairs at Paragon Sporting Goods (ironic, especially because I was going downstairs with the intent to look at the Sports Medicine department...) so Saturday's run was a little weird because of a big bruise on my right hip. Now the long run DID NOT HAPPEN. I made the terrible mistake of going out Saturday night to catch up with Niki after her vacation in Alaska and what was intended to be a nice catchup session at Union Jacks turned into 3 beers there, 2-3 beers down the road at the Tiki Bar and then another couple at the Flying Dog. SOOO bad... Sooo much fun!! But after that I resolved that I couldn't do that anymore.
Total for week - 13

Week 6 - 3-7-3-9
Got new test shoes from RW on Tuesday and they were AWFUL for me - I ran 4 in them (not realizing at the time that I only needed to do 3), then went back to the Mizunos but had stomach issues on Thurdsay and Friday, but was an overachiever and did 2 on Wednesday. Sunday I did 8 because I needed to and they were the WORST 8 miles I've ever made myself do. It was rainy so it was super-muggy and I just was not in the mood, even though I was out there.
Total for week - 19

Week 7 - 5 -6-4-9
Tuesday I missed 2 miles, I did Friday's run on Wednesday, but only 2 miles of it, I did the tempo run on Saturday, only 5 but made them hard and then Sunday I had the best long run in weeks, it was 70/75 degrees and nearly 100% humidity but those 9 miles went great. I did the parkway and will definitely do that again soon.
Total for week - 19

Week 8 - 5-4-4-5
Cutback week!! Didn't really push the mileage this week - I did my Tuesday 5, and went away to the beach Thursday to Sunday so Thursday, Friday and Sunday runs were pointless. I put in 2 on Friday but it was too hot and humid at 8am that I was done.
Total for week - 7

Week 9 - 4-7-4-10
BACK ON TRACK - this week's training is going well, just need to make up for not running tonight tomorrow morning, piece of cake. Definitely feeling good for Sunday's long run because the temperature finally broke and we've lost the humidity. The high is going to be in the 70s so at 7am it will be perfect. My notes for last night's tempo run have 'KICK ASS' in all caps - I really felt awesome with that run. I was kinda 'meh' about it, got through the first mile and a 1/2 and was in the mindset of maybe going to 2 miles then doing the rest on the elliptical, but then I fell into a groove. Not sure if it was willpower, perseverence or bitterness/disgust at seeing Vick in an EAgles uniform (the gym had the preseason game on) but damn was that a great run. I did an extra 1/2 mile at tempo pace, and kicked up the pace even more the last quarter mile.

So what have I learned? I NEED to focus on the training now - it's game time. I'm done making excuses - it's the end of the line.

My next 6-7 weeks are daunting. I'm glad to have a 'calm' weekend this weekend and NOTHING next weekend. I have two weddings (three if you count one of them taking place twice in two states, which I'm in), a half marathon and a bachelorette party. Plus my 30th bday is sandwiched in the middle of all of that and really isn't going to get to be anything special because I'll be so busy with weddings. I'm going to have fun with it all, but I'm kind of bummed that I don't have a really special celebration.