12 weeks to go

Well this is the week after the 4th of July. It has been a great week for training, in a round about way.
I did not do my usual running over the 4th of July weekend as 1. we were camping and 2. with all the walking we did in Busch Gardens I felt that was exercise enough.
So Monday and Wednesday was the normal 1/2 hour run at work with Colin and Harris for a total of 6.2 miles. It feels so good to run with other people, even though I hold both of them back I still enjoy the company and I know they do as well.
Now comes the weekend which I had a lot of activity scheduled. I had to do my long run, a bunch of yard work to do including cutting the grass plus I had a make up softball game smack in the middle of the day.
So I get up Saturday morning and I had a quandary. I was speaking with a buddy at work and he was giving away a youth motorcycle. I told him that I would take it. I was hoping to get it from him on Friday at work, but no such luck. So he was going to bring it to the house Saturday morning on his way out to his Dads place in West Virginia that he is buying. Anyway, I was not sure when he was going to be out, plus he mentioned maybe I could get it from him on Monday.
We I delayed and then decided to go out for my long run. I was planing on doing 10 miles.
Well I was 3 miles into it and he calls me. He was having some trouble finding the house. I directed him back to where he needed to go and told him I was on a run but on my way back. As I was doing a loop I really was not that far from home, a little less then a mile. So I turned around and headed home, unbeknownst to me was another runner following me. As I turned around she gave me a high five with a smile on her face. What a great feeling. It takes me back to some of the races I have done in the past, but more on that in a minute. So I was on my way back up the long hill in our neighborhood to our house and well as I could have figured there goes my buddy from work. He did not stick around long as he had to get going. This kind of gave me an excuse to cut my run short as it was getting real humid out. So I decided to end my run short at 4 miles. I finish all my other "chores" around the house so fast forward to Sunday morning. My wife and I wake up and she is feels like going for a run. She is training to do a duathlon in October so she has to be able to run 2 miles, then bike 10 miles then run 3.1 miles. I decide to join her and we end up doing 5 miles. I felt great! Mainly because it was early enough in the day and because I got the miles in that I wanted to. Again it always feels better to run with a partner. I am not sure why that is.
I usually plan on posting on Sunday night but time got away from me. However, I am glad that it did and here is why. So we go on our normal Monday lunch time run at work minus one as he had other things to do. I happened to wear my Cherry Blossom shirt and I am not sure if that has any meaning but about a third of the way through our run another runner was coming towards us and gives me a high five. Not sure why but it sure does feel good.
These two high five activities takes me back to the races that I have run in. I have enjoyed all of them and I think back to why. One because my family was there cheering me on and two crowd support. Some of the 5ks don't have good crowd support except for the beginning and the end but it is such a short distance compared to other races that I am starting to focus on.
So my recommendation is if you are thinking of participating in a race, do it. Just make the commitment and do it. You will be surprised and what gets you going. For me, having a bunch of people yelling and screaming saying "you can do it" makes me want to run faster. All it takes is that first step forward.

4th of July

Well this has been a very slow week as far as the training runs go. Not really much to say.
On Monday we ran for 3.1 miles. A nice 5k at lunch time with some buddies at work. This ended my monthly running stats at 52.91 miles. Not too bad.
On Wednesday to start the month of July we did 3.23 miles. I must say I really enjoy running at lunch time. It forces me to get up and away from my desk and the company is great as well. I do wish we had a shower to use. There is one in the girls bathroom, but now that we have females working here it is very hard to use it.
I did not do my scheduled Saturday long run as we were in Busch Gardens for the 4th of July holiday weekend. We did a lot of walking so I figured I would be ok. I must say that I am glad that today is a running day for me. I am starting to get those feelings of "I must run". Its not a bad feeling but I finally understand what some people go through when they get injured and can not run for a while. This makes me take a step back and really start to review my running so that I make sure I don't injure myself. I will have to make sure that I keep my pace slow today. I can just feel myself wanting to burst out of the gates like a bat out of hell.
Like I said not much going on now. I will post again in a week.
Thanks for reading.