16 on Saturday, none today.

Well, I think I pushed it a little hard Saturday. It's Tuesday and I'm still feeling the effects. I went to a Wasatch Back meeting last week and met some girls there who were running up Squaw Peak to train for the Ragnar section of the race, and on my team that's my job. We were supposed to meet at 7:20 or so, and they would leave a car at the top so we could ride down. I got there at 7:09, and there are three cars at the bottom of the road, and no girls in sight. I figured maybe they were a little early and decide to start on my own and try to catch up. About 1.5 miles into it, I had 4 girls pass me going downhill that must have been them. I got to the top (4 miles total at a 7.5% grade) and no car. To say I was disappointed would be understating things. It was really hard for me to get up there. 12:05 was my average pace over the 4 miles, but my goal was to just not stop, which I met. I turned around and went back down the mountain (not so good for the joints); later in the day I did my last 8 miles.

My knees and foot are still feeling it.

Sunday was rest of course, and I spent yesterday with family, so the biggest workout I did was about a 2 mile walk, but I did carry my 5 year old on my shouldersabout half of the time. So I woke up today, hoping to get in the 8 miles of hills on my schedule, and no dice. I was all set up and started walking my block as a warm-up to start, and it hurt so bad I just didn't feel good about tearing my foot up anymore. I did 80 minutes on the spin bike instead. I really hope I can just maintain my levels until the race. I think, if I tear up that fascia any worse, I will perform worse the day of. It's uncomfortable for me to make these decisions on my own. I really want a coach, trainer, Jeff, or someone to tell me --here is where you stop, here is where you suck it up. I'm realizing more and more though that I'm the only one who can make these decisions for me. I'm the only one who really knows how I feel, and what I think my body can handle.

SO anyway, I did my 80 minutes, and did a great green drink from my garden today!


I didn't have my usual spinach left in the fridge, and originally thought I would have to pick the lettuce out of the leftover salad, and just have a mini shake instead of the green monster I was hungry for. Then I remembered....GARDEN! All of that hard work is finally starting to pay off. I cut 3-4 cups of butter lettuce leaves,


Stole a few "Nero de Toscana" Kale leaves,



and pulled some handfuls of parsley, and lemon balm (from the top picture). Finally, I added a full bunch of cilantro from the fridge drawer (it's green right?), some Sun Warrior protein,



and a scoop of this that Jeff bought and keeps pushing for me to use. He bought the lemon flavor, which went better with the lemony greens anyway. It's an NO2 supplement, that is supposed to help with muscle recovery, and red blood cell production (which I'm going to need since the race is at altitude I'm not used to). That shake was a little....exotic tasting, but (I apologize for my enthusiasm), I was so excited anyway since I'd grown all of those greens.
Maybe by Thursday I'll be up for my nine miles....I hope so. What a roller coaster this training has been.

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