A BIG Thank You, and a Return From a Blogging Sabbatical

It's been a week or two since I last blogged, and a lot has happened since then.  First, though, I want to thank you for your help in the "Fashion Forward Your Fabulous Fool" contest.  I was holding on to second place, and in the last few hours, was passed.  BUT, I still got 3rd place!  I owe it to all of your votes!  So THANKS!

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging…

Last Friday-Saturday I made a quick trip to Valpo for the memorial service of a dear friend.  I had every intent of doing a fartlek on Saturday morning in Valpo, but the combination of a long drive (8 hours + Chicago) and getting into Valpo very late caused me to sleep in (I'm not complaining about the extra sleep…) and miss the fartlek.  So, I drove back on Saturday (8 hours again, and Chicago) and got in late.  Well, on Sunday, I decided to do the fartlek.

While doing it, I just didn't feel good.  It was probably because I was exhausted from the trip, but I just felt like crap.  To top it off, my left Achilles decided to act up on my way back.  I took Monday off of running, and went out on Tuesday, but the Achilles acted up again, and I was only able to go about a mile.  Dejected, I took Wednesday off, but resolved myself to get my interval workout in on Thursday.

Thursday: Went to the track for 6x400s.  (Note: I hate 400s.  I've always hated 400s.  I hated them so much in high school track that I started running the 3200m just so I didn't have to run the 4x400 relay.  Yes, I ran 2 miles so I didn't have to run a ¼ mile.)  The workout went well and my Achilles stayed in check.  I still hate 400s, but I was happy to get a full workout in.

The highlight of this week, though, was today's run.  It was a really rainy morning, and I needed to get a tempo run in.  I like to do this where I can run without getting interrupted by traffic lights or intersections and usually do this up and down the river parkway.  But, there was a big half marathon/10k on the river parkway today, so I hopped in the car and drove over to Lake Calhoun.  It was fantastic.  Rain.  Lake. Running.  'Twas wonderful.
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Katie and I have a really exciting race coming up next weekend, but I tell you more about it sometime this week.