I love racing season!

I can't believe I have the first race of the season in just 20 days! This is the 2nd Annual Virginia is for Lovers 14K, held Valentine's Day weekend. I raced it last year with Jami, and this year we're racing it again. Sean and JoJo are both joining us so it'll be fun to have more people to hang out with before and after the race.

Realizing that this race is less than 3 weeks away was starting to freak me out, not because I didn't want to run it, but because I was afraid my body wouldn't be able to run it.

I've been spending the last few months doing Muscle Pump twice a week, and thanks to my Dad I am now the proud of owner of a bike trainer, which I've been using a minimum of once a week. With the combination of weight lifting and biking my legs have gotten a triple workout. Because of this I haven't been running, because let's just face it, I'm tired.

I raced a half marathon in November and than a few 5K's after that, but basically since the middle of December I've been giving my body a break from running and I've gotten lazy.

Last week I went out for a few short runs and they felt awful. My legs felt heavy and I didn't enjoy the 3-4 miles I tried to accomplish each time. This past Tuesday we had a nice day in the 60's and I figured I'd attempt a 6 mile run, I failed. It was awful. I ran 3.5 miles and my body could not go anymore.

This made me nervous, because A. I don't like to fail and because B. I have this 14K in less than 3 weeks and a half marathon in 55 days. I needed to figure out something. I wasn't sure why my body was shutting down on me, okay it wasn't shutting down on me, but it wasn't allowing me to push myself the way I'm used to pushing it. I decided I'd try decreasing my weights for squats. I did this on Thursday, took Friday off and than decided to attempt another 6 mile run today.

This morning my legs felt tired, my ankles felt weak and I was giving myself all sorts of excuses as to why I was going to fail. But I HAD to run. I have 3 weeks to go from 3 miles to almost 9 miles. I needed to get a good run in today.

Luckily Sean has been getting his runs in and he already had a successful 6 mile run earlier this week. We left the house together ready to conquer our run. It was chilly, in the 30's, but it was sunny. I started off at an even pace not pushing it too much, I always go out fast. My body felt good, I kept with Sean for the first half of the run, and than my body wanted to kick it, it wanted to push it. Mind you, it wasn't a fast run, but it was solid and I had negative splits for each mile, aside from mile 1.

Mile 1: 9:26
Mile 2: 9:41
Mile 3: 9:35
Mile 4: 9:27
Mile 5: 9:19
Mile 6: 8:47
last quarter mile: 8:09 pace
Average of 9:20 pace for the entire run

I pushed it until the end and I felt a rush, a sense of accomplishment, and a knowing that I would be fine in 3 weeks. Prior to today I was beginning to forget why I loved to run, and my run this morning gave it all back to me. The adrenaline rush was amazing.

After my run I came inside and started thinking about race season. I am excited to run, I'm excited to race and I'm excited it's almost here!

So far I've only signed up for the VIFL 14K and Shamrock Half Marathon, but I am signing up for the Smithfield Triathlon and than Sean and I need to sit down and look at our calendar and decide what other races we want to do. There are a ton of triathlons we want to do, we really want to do at least one international distance and than I love the 5K, so I'll be signing up for a ton of those for sure. As I sign up for races I will list them on my sidebar.

I'm really glad this is something Sean is into as well. It helps to have him there to push me and for me to push him. He is taking his training a lot more serious this year, so I have a feeling I won't be able to beat him anymore. He beat me the last race of the 2009 season, and I have a feeling he got a taste of success and won't let me have it back. I do, however, hope maybe I can beat him at least once, I know, I'm so competitive. Regardless of who wins between us, we still both win because we are doing what we love and we are improving each day.

Sean and I have made a ton of friends doing what we love and we can't wait to share the 2010 journey with all of you.

To my friends and family that don't race, thank you for your support, and willingness to listen as I go on and on about my races. Thanks for at least pretending to be excited for me and get ready as I get excited about 2010, it's going to be the best year yet!