LONG RUN FRIDAY.

One hour 31 minutes 39 seconds. And now I'm at work. A lovely day.

This is definitely a sign of progress. Just getting the run done in the first place, no whining, complaining, procrastinating, or backing out. I was actually looking forward to it. And then being able to walk after, go up steps, AND go to work. Amazing.

Just six months ago, if I had even thought of doing something like this, I would have been pretty much wiped out for the day. Not that it won't catch up to me at some point, but I'm feeling pretty good right now--no sore feet; no tight knees; no overwhelming fatigue; no problems. For the past year and a half, I always had to plan my long runs on a Saturday or Sunday, just so I had the rest of the day to recover. And if it was longer than 1.5 hours, I needed the rest of the weekend to recover and be able to go to work on Monday. Finally, after so much time, I can say I am seeing things turn around. I have struggled with this lack of energy or bouncing back after a workout for so long, I was getting very frustrated thinking it would never improve. I don't know how it will translate in my 1/2 IM in SIX WEEKS (yikes!), but I am still a little more hopeful than I was even a month ago. I am cautiously optimistic, however. I still always think something bad is going to happen every time things start going good for me.

Why did I do a long run on a weekday? Because Saturday, Chiarunner (God I love having a local blogger around!) and I will be volunteering at Johan's Trifest Olympic distance triathlon. I have done this race twice, but have volunteered 4 other times. Its kind of an expected thing since all the tri-geeks from here are either on the race committee or are doing the race themselves. So it will be my one volunteer opportunity for the year.

I passed on doing the race because I didn't feel ready to tackle the bike course. Not that I couldn't do it, just how fast was a question, and how fast I could recover. And while I know speed is not always a factor, for this race, it is. I have been the last person or one of the last to finish this race both times I have done it, leaving a somewhat negative memory for me, and making it hard to want to "go there" again. And my second reason was deciding not to clutter up my schedule with races I wasn't ready for just to do a race, which seems more sensible this year, and needing to focus on the one race I am signed up for that will matter the most.

I think Cindy Jo will be there, so we'll have another "local" blogger there.

And good luck to all the tri-geeks doing IMCD this weekend! I hope they do well and don't freeze on the swim!