A month later...

Whoops, haven't posted for a whole month! Well I think thats due in part to my obtaining a job. Nothing too special, just a Starbucks barista :) But its helping make me some money for the time being and get some free coffee. I actually love working there! Its a very relaxed and comfortable environment and the company actually cares about their product, and they care that their employees are knowledgeable about their product. Anyways, its a pretty great job so far.

But the one downside? It definitely has affected my running. I have not been able to get the quantity of runs in per week that I would like to. Now I think I'm slowly starting to get adjusted and will begin to increase my mileage again. And its hard because if I work early in the morning, and am off at a reasonable time, its too hot and my feet hurt too much to run after a shift. What I think I'm going to start doing is make a running/workout schedule based on  my work schedule, take some of the daily planning out of it.

This past week, for example, from Sunday-Saturday, 2 RUNS ONLY. Haha I haven't run only twice in a week since after my 2nd half marathon I think, when I took a week or two off. But even though it was only 2 runs, still almost 15 miles for the week, so Im still happy. I did a 10 miler yesterday and although it was very slow (about 1:53) I took NO walking breaks, and the humidity was through the freaking roof, so I finally understand that speed is not really possible in that kind of heat. And, although I dont want to jinx anything, yesterday was less painful than usual. Now, I took the inserts out of one of my shoes that Ive been wearing (took it out of my left shoe, kept it in my right one) and it seems like my left foot was not in as much pain as usual. I think it is because I really focused on my technique during my run yesterday, making sure my heel strikes the ground first then the balls of my feet, then toes. This seemed to help immensely so Im really going to focus on this for my next few runs.

Okay, so I was reading some triathlon race recaps this weekend, and now I really want to do one! A marathon really wasn't possible for me to consider this summer due to my foot pain, but a triathlon seems like a huge challenge, but also very possible. There is one September 12th, a "Sprint Triathlon" which is 750m swim, 20km bike and a 5km run, and its in Shubie, aka pretty much next door to my house, so no traveling would be involved.

The most difficult part of this would completely be the swim, although Ive always been a comfortable swimmer, Ive never been a fast one, nor would I have any idea on how to train for a 750km open water swim. Can I swim in Banook/Mic Mac or Lake Charles? Is it dangerous to train there without some sort of helper, because of all the paddlers and rowers? Thats something that I might email the race director about, and see if they have any organized, supervised open water swims, which would be amazing.

Ive just been having a great time riding my bike recently, and running has been going well (just a little infrequently) and if I can get some longer distance swims in I think I can do it :)

Off to watch the last km of this crazy Tour de France stage, go Schleck!