Life is Good

This past weekend I ran the Salem Lake 30K Trail Race. This is an awesome race! It's located at a greenway at Salem Lake in Winston Salem, NC. The course is wonderful. It's an out and back race where you run almost completely around the lake and then turn and run back. You can see the lake for most of the course. The terrain is mostly packed sand, but there are sections of asphalt in some of the trickier spots. I estimate there was 5 miles of asphalt and the rest was sand. No roots and very few ruts to avoid. It really should be called a Greenway race instead of trail. It was also mostly flat. There were a few hills (possibly 5) that were interspersed, making for a nice challenge just when you started getting bored. Only two hills were really noteworthy.

The first 10 miles were great. I felt strong and ran as hard as I can at the moment. The last 8.6, all I could think about was the .6. Sometimes something ridiculous like that gets in my head and I can't shake it. The last 8.6 were tougher than the first 10. I didn't realize I was running so much decline at the beginning until I was running so much incline at the end. But it was so nice to get off asphalt and do something different. The weather was cool but it was misting the entire time. Towards the end the trail was starting to puddle. Of course, I'm pretty out of shape as far as endurance and I was out there 3hrs 14mins. When I finished Adam was waiting for me and gave me a nice dry towel. It felt so awesome to wrap up in something warm and dry and clean! I'd like to do this race again next year, but will actually train for it!

I had a lot of friends running this race. Adam came in 12th overall and ran a 2:03, Todd P. ran a 2:14, his gf Shenna ran a 2:19, Shawn S. ran a 2:26, Jamie and Tara ran a 2:47 and Luci ran a 3:10.

So given my results, I've decided to up my long runs from 8-12 miles to 12-15 miles and instead of 20-25 miles per week, I'm aiming for 30-35. With the race last week I finished over 36 miles for the week. This week I'll finish with close to 30. This is probably not a great idea since my foot issue seems to come and go. It's currently 'come.'

In addition to running 4 times a week, spin class once a week, swimming 3 times a week, lifting 3 times a week and yoga once a week, I 've started walking twice a week with a friend from work. We walk in the morning twice a week for 3 miles each time. It's really nice. I may not think so in December and January, but I'll be out there!

Outside of fitness, things are going well. Poor Cleo ate a leaf over the weekend and spent all Monday throwing up. She seems to be doing well today. I was worried I was going to have to take her to the animal hospital at one point. She wouldn't let me pick her up (think it was too much pressure on her stomach) so I didn't know how I was going to get her there. I planned my trip to Zion/Vegas for December and I have several concerts coming up this month. So I'm staying busy and enjoying life a bit more these days.