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10/27/2006

Using My Words

has been hard lately. I don't know why I have taken this self-imposed hiatus from blogging - I just needed a break, or something. I am still reading your blogs (I have become addicted to you, people!), just not feeling that I have any juicy tidbits to share. But, just in case there are some folks from my blogroll and elsewhere casing the joint, here is what I have been up to.

Masters swimming has been really great. I swim with the team 2 times a week, and on my own another 1-2 times a week, and run when I am not swimming. I love being part of a team again, and I even conned my husband into joining with me. For those of you who don't know, he likes swimming about as much as I like biking, so for him to join Masters is quite an accomplishment. The one thing about Masters is that it keeps you humble. There are a lot of great swimmers on the team, college swimmers and all around fast folks, so it has been a good kick in the pants, and helped me push myself. There is nothing like being the slowest person in the lane, and having to push yourself for an entire practice.

As for running, I am trying to keep my monthly mileage up there...my mileage for October should be pretty good - when I update my sidebar, it should be somewhere in the 80s. After a low-mileage summer due to triathaloning, I want my fall and early winter to be more run-focused. I have been trying to do between 8-10 miles on the weekends, which helps keep the mileage up there. There are a couple of half-marathons in November that I am looking forward to, as well.

I ran a 15K race in September (with TriEric's wife - she took 2nd female overall, and I took 3rd female overall, with a time of 1:22!) It was a fun race. I also PRed for my 5 Mile run time on October 21, with a time of 40:44 (and took second in my age group.) There was a race (1/2 marathon) that my husband and I attempted to do in September. I say attempted, because we got up at the butt-crack of dawn one Saturday morning, and headed out to Lorain, Ohio to do the Lighthouse to Lighthouse 1/2 marathon. We drove around the oh-so-splendid city of Lorain searching for the race start, to no avail. We stopped at the police station to inquire, but it was locked. We drove around the deserted streets, and against my better judgment, stopped to ask a scary looking man with no teeth if he knew where the race was. I told my husband that I valued my life more than this race, so don't do that again. Well, to make a long story short, we made a few calls, talked to the race director and discovered that the race wasn't on Saturday, but it was on Sunday...of the upcoming week. DUH! So not only did we have the day wrong, we were a week early! WTH!

Heh. Maybe I have more funny stories to share than I thought. Anyway, that pretty much brings you all up to date, if there is anybody still reading this blog. I think that I am going to start sharing my co-blogging responsibilities with my husband, Eric. He lurks around the majority of everyone's blogs, and has expressed an interest in putting some posts on mine. So you may start seeing some posts from him in the near future.

One last thing - congratulations to all my blog friends who have competed in tris, marathons, and other assorted athletic pursuits over the past few months. You are all inspiring in many ways. And congratulations to all the new moms and moms to be out there - thanks for sharing your journeys from pregnancy and beyond.

Have a great weekend!!