Ramblings on running

I ran in the rain Friday for my "long" run. Sadly I have only gotten up to 11 miles since my last half Ironman 2 months ago, and I'm not sure I ran longer than that in training since February. But it's a half marathon in 5 weeks. You don't really have to run further than that in training, unless of course, you want to run (relatively) fast. I did a few 2 mile tempo intervals during this run on the very very flat river trail, just to see if my goal pace would feel ok. It didn't, so I ran 30 seconds per mile slower than what I had hoped to do in the half marathon, which is around 7 minute pace. I don't want to do a half marathon just to add to my total number. I've assumed a PR was too much to ask (it stands at 1:30:20 I think), but I'd like to run as fast as I did in the perfect weather at Oceanside 70.3 in March (1:33). And while I can fairly easily do 4 x 1 mile repeats -- with a little hill involved -- in sub-7, like Tuesday night's workout, apparently I can't do them consecutively. I'll put most of the blame on the extra 15 pounds of rain I was hauling in my clothes, hair, and shoes. But the mist over the warm river rising up the mountains in the background was beautiful. There were squirrels, deer, and geese out with me on the trails. I've had to remind myself that there aren't dangerous predators in these woods like back in NM, and I try not to jump when I see a deer (in the mountains, "where there are deer, there are cougars").

All that rain brought beautiful weather along behind it, perfect for running. I took Saturday as a complete off day since Jeremy was out in Oklahoma attempting to race on a flat tire. The silver lining to his frustrating day was that he came home early. At least that's my silver lining. So today I went out for an easy 8 miler from home, which starts out down down downhill and ends going up up up. I didn't even take the Garmin, since I tend to get overly obsessed with pace when I have it (and when it works. Speaking of its finickiness, how ridiculous is it that I had it in a ziploc bag for Friday's run?). I ran easily in the cool breeze and then chatted with Jenny on the phone, headphones in, while starting the last long climb. Somehow I still ran under 8 minute pace, which I couldn't do Fri on the flats.This route has around 600 feet of climbing in 8.25 miles while the 11 miler had about 60. And I'm not forgetting any zeros at the end of that. I really don't understand my legs. Or my lungs -- they've lost any adaptation to altitude they had. 

Saturday Hunter and I busied ourselves at Heifer Village. I love this company, so check them out if you're unfamiliar. They're based here, and they brought some farm animals from the Perryville farm. And it turns out, like our book says, billy goats DO chew everything, and may even nibble at your clothes. Hunter loooooved it. And the sheep, hens, and rabbits. 

My favorite sign this week was when he saw a green lizard on the deck and signed "alligator." Pretty good comparison! A mini alligator!