Do you have a 'plan'?

This week as part of the training we are getting, we were given a homework assignment to have completed.  We were to write our plan for the Race to Robie including the week before, day before, day of and during the race itself.  Our plans for hydration, sleep, nutrition, etc.  Not everyone actually did the homework, but several, including Chipper Betty and I, did.  After listening to everyone's plans I realized that it truly was just a way to separate the serious runners from the.... well, ME!  Here I am sharing that I have learned the night before the race not to eat Thai, Vietnamese or Mexican food while the others are all talking about continuing their diet of brown rice with lean chicken and ham for breakfast, etc., etc., etc.  BLECH!  I LIKE FOOD!  I know this isn't a surprise to anyone who knows me and I am aware that a person needs to eat healthy.  However, I am a firm believer that healthy and good tasting CAN go together.

So, Betty and I both have plans in place (during the race, my plan is to follow Betty).  They may not be fancy and we most certainly won't be clocking 9 minute miles, but I am pretty certain that even if I did eat nothing but sawdust I still wouldn't have that kind of a time.  We WILL finish and collect the T-shirt and wear them with great pride!  In the meantime, we are healthier than we were the beginning of January and having a BLAST!  I think WE are winners already!

some lessons learned

I have learned the importance of making certain the mid-week work outs happen in addition to the long runs on Saturdays.  The last 2 weeks, I haven't gotten any of them in.  Not one and let me tell you, yesterday's 11 miles was killer!  My breathing was terrible and my endurance worse.  Probably the slowest time I have had in 6 weeks.  Chipper Betty was fabulous and kept telling me "you can do it!" which my brain was NOT saying.  We did finish it and for that I am glad.  I deserve to be much more sore than I am, but still need to stretch.

So, there are people who truly are crazier than Betty and I and yesterday we saw them!  As we were on the return leg of the 11 miles, we went by a couple who had packs on their back, using ski poles, and tied around there waist a tire they were dragging.  They each had their OWN tire.  It appeared to be rigged up to put additional weights on instead.  I was looking for Jillian behind them.  Seriously!  I proceed to tell them that they were a special kind of crazy and had ALL of my respect and awe.  I then had to pick up my jaw for about the next mile as I thought about it.  Really, the only way you could ever get be to do that was if Jillian was making me.