Commitment Time

I started my day by not being motivated to get up to do my usual Tuesday early morning fun run before work. I went to the trail ran a couple minutes got bored and turned around to walk back to my car and drive to work.

I started my shift made my usual egg, sausage, sweet potato hash brown breakfast. I then did the usual Tuesday shopping trip and came back to the house.

I took a break and saw that our new SLO Ambassador had posted he had 8 comp entries to fill for the SLO Marathon, Half Marathon and 5k. I asked if I could do the half. Another individual asked if he could do the half as well. Bentley our new ambassador responded that if we could do half we could do the full. I immediately responded that my last long run was 5 miles and I'm in.

I have read the non-runner's guide to marathon training followed its schedule to train for the half marathon I successfully completed 3 years ago and I know that 16 weeks is a great guide for the recommend amount of time to train for a marathon. Okay so I'm short 13 1/2 weeks no big deal!

I don't have room for skeptics or pessimism here or those who might tell me I'm setting myself up for injury or failure.

I've very recently read Matty Long's success story of his Long Run, Carissa Phelps story of triumph, Cheryl Strayed's journey down Pacific Crest Trail, I'm currently reading Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods and just tonight I learned of an amazing inspiration Jeremy P. McGhee I will take his amazing words and ignore the voice in my head that says I'm not good enough and it can't be done. Let go of everything and do what you love profound words spoken by an amazing individual!

My dear friend and ultrarunner friend Kevin asked me if I'm prepared. I replied no I'm not prepared, but I'm willing. He's running it too. I expect him to be twice as fast and qualify for Boston.

Okay so last week the Crossfit Open Games 2013 started with WOD 13.1 being announced. I completed 40 burpees, 30 snatches at 45 lbs, 30 burpees, 18 snatches at 75 lbs in 17 minutes. For the next 4 weeks WOD 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5 will be announced. 13.5 will be announced just 3 days after I finish running my first marathon. I don't think it's a coincidence I completed workout 13.1 last Friday and committed to running 26.2 today.

I got my photos from the bicycle photo booth and my favorite is the one where I'm in runners pose holding the bike. My favorite little self mantra is CrossFit, Mtn. Bike, Run...always have fun!!!

Sometimes I take a different trail

I was so fortunate to have two days off work loaded with adventure.

I got off work Thursday morning and went to have my makeup done by Angela at Sephora. She did a wonderful job and my bright pink lipstick matched the neon pink on my jersey and socks.

Thursday afternoon I went to Kman Bicycle and Run to a bicycle photo booth that was sponsored by App Photography. It was such amazing fun I cannot wait to see the results!

Thursday evening I went on a hash run where I learned of a descending rope climb to a very small beautiful beach. That was then followed by a climb up a hill with a 16% grade. As I was ascending that hill my mind reflected on the book Wild that I had just finished reading and I was inspired to keep pushing myself up that hill which earned me a course record on my little program I use to track my progress. It's a good motivational tool for me.

Friday I went to CrossFit Grover Beach and I really enjoyed the WOD. For those of you thinking ugh I hate when people talk about CrossFit feel free to skip reading this. I don't care for rowing so the 1000m row tested my attention span. Hey look there's a squirrel running across the beach and wow look at that view. See that's what happens when I am on a rowing machine one block from the beach with an ocean view. I then got to move on to burpee box jumps (yes I like them) followed by pull-ups and ring dips. For the first time ever my first two pull-ups may have had a kip in them and I felt really strong. Then I moved on to deadlifts which are so frustrating to me because prior to hurting my back over a year ago I felt I did well in that area. I still complete the movement, but the weight is clearly much lighter than what I feel I could be lifting.

I left CrossFit Grover Beach and met my friend to go for a night mtn. bike ride at Lopez Lake. My friend let me use his very bright light as he decided he wanted to test his old technology light that he had modified. I hadn't been on any of these trails and the purpose of the ride was to see what I missed out on by not participating in the off road triathlon I volunteered at last year. I decided to turn around and ride back and told my friend I didn't want to test my limit and get fatigued. On our way back we each got disoriented and ended up riding roads and numerous trails to try to get back to the fireroad we knew we had ridden out. I ended up walking up to the house at the boyscout camp and I met the nicest most lighthearted man. He said,"I bet you're going to ask me how the heck you get out of here." That was precisely my question. My friend's light had run out of battery so we knew we would be riding with only the reflection I had lighting the way. The man at the boyscout camp we learned was Ranger Mike told us the way out to which my friend Mike and I just laughed. We had been past where we needed to go at least 3 times 2 of those times going left when we should have gone right. Mike and I both remained positive the entire time later joking that we would call that our lost adventure.

I look forward to seeing the next adventure my day off provides...