Just 5 more minutes...

This past weekend I flew to New York City to surprise my best friend and fellow marathon trainee, Shannon, for her birthday. It was a great weekend and I managed to convince Jocelyn to go running with me on Saturday too (sorry about the dry heaves love). I spent most of the day yesterday flying back. I had hoped to get back to my friend's house in Berkeley around 5 and go for a quick run before making dinner. However I just barely missed the baggage cutoff and had to "voluntarily seperate" from my bag. The woman at the counter kept telling me that my bag was probably going to make it on the plane. When I got to San Francisco and made it to baggage claim we had to wait for them to fix the belt and then I had to wait for all the bags to arrive. As it turns out, my bag didn't make. This nixed my running plans because my shoes and workout clothes were in my luggage.

I was so exhausted from the weekend and from traveling all I wanted to do was take a shower and eat some dinner. Unfortunatly my bag didn't arrive until 8pm so then I had to drive back across the bay to pick it up. I ate but no time or energy for a shower until today. I had hoped to get up and hit the gym on my way to work this morning but I was too exhausted. Instead I will hit the gym tomorrow for some strength training and do the same on Thursday. I've got a unique situation going on right now that presents it's own challenges. I am working south of San Francisco 3 days a week and then driving 2 hours north to Ukiah to spend 4 days with my parents. While I'm in SF it's hard to get out for runs because I have an 1.5 hr commute each way so I get up in the dark and get home in the dark. I've decided instead to leave the house earlier and stop at my old gym in Daly City which is right next to the BART(subway system) on my way to work.

Ukiah is probably the best place I've ever lived for running/cycling. It's flat and wide open. The 4 days a week I'm up there will be my longer runs and cardio days. The other fun part to this whole set up is that this is only lasting until the end of this month. At that point I am moving to Colorado for the winter where I will be at 8,100 ft above sea level. I have no plans to stop my running for the winter. When I first started running I was a freshman in College in central Minnesota and it was winter time. You know the saying "Baptism by fire"? Well I had a Baptism by ice. I've enjoyed running outside in the winter ever since. I know the altitude is going to be a big challenge so I'm glad we've got lots of time before the marathon so I can slowly add mileage after I've adjusted to the altitude.

This weekend I'll be in Ukiah to celebrate my Mom's birthday and I'm planning on heading out for a 20 to 30 mile bike ride a long with a couple 4 to 5 mile runs and even some swimming! Maybe after the marathon I can convince Shannon and Jocelyn to do a triathlon...