The running horse that is.  After the ride on Sunday, I went back into sloth mode and took Monday and Tuesday off.  I even took a nap after work on Monday, oh man.  However by Wednesday I finally realized if I was going to have a decent 10k this weekend and even moreso, a decent half the following weekend, I needed to put my running shoes on and get back out there.

After doing dishes and two loads of laundry (talk about procrastinating), I finally dragged myself outside for a 3 mile run.  Much less than my planned 5, but mentally it was all I could convince myself to do.  I was able to run at a pretty speedy pace which I was happy about, but I was happier to be back inside, shower and put on warm clothes afterwards.  Running in the evenings has gotten quite chilly and shorts and a t-shirt probably aren’t going to cut it anymore!

Today I had planned to do six after work, but one mile into the run I realized that probably wasn’t going to happen.  My left hamstring was really tight and my right hip was downright angry.  Argh, guess I should have stretched after the run the night before.  Regardless, I ended up only doing four, but was glad that I dragged myself out two nights in a row, which was the most I had done during the weeks since the race.  My weekends somehow have been very busy with riding and running, but weekdays…not so much (I do have the flu to partly blame for that).

I also have new motivation to get fit during the off-season though – I finally have decided on a coach for IMAZ!  I spoke to her today and she said that she had room for me in 2013, and training will start officially in March!  Now I’m really starting to get excited again for IMAZ.  At the beginning of the week I was starting to feel really intimidated by the race itself and the costs along the way – but now that I have a coach secured and a budget in place, I’m feeling much more confident and excited.  I cannot wait to head down to Tempe in a little over a month to volunteer, if that isn’t motivating, I don’t know what is!

Tomorrow am, depending on how my hip/hamstring feels, I plan to do some miles on the treadmill (6? but seeing how tonight went, I won’t push it).   Fingers crossed.  Also, at lunch I am picking up my Halloween 10k race packet during lunch, hooray!!  I look forward to this race every year!!

Off to bed!