And, it strikes again!

IT being the magical pregnancy blood-doping syndrome that has been striking my running lately.


I wasn't sure how my run would go today. I sort of had an unintentional week off. And by off, I mean laying around sleeping and drinking ginger ale. Good times.

My rockin' new Coach Emily had me go for a walk last night just to get moving again. I took Mugsy the Wonder Pug for a nice walk since it was pretty chilly for a run with JayZ. Today, she had me at a 50 minute run. Matt has class tonight, so I knew if I was going to get it in at all, it would be with JayZ in the stroller.

Hmmmm. Pushing a 21 pounder in the stroller might not make for a good comeback run after a week off. I was a little nervous.

It is sunny and beautiful, but a little chilly at 50 degrees or so, so I bundled up JayZ a bit. We headed out. I decided to actually wear my heart rate monitor. I don't think I've worn the thing since Ironman--seriously. I am not a huge fan of HR training but I know it can be beneficial for data's sake, so I reluctantly put it on. I'm surprised the battery even worked!

Despite a little wind, it was a fantabulous run. I felt GREAT. Not even great, FANTASTIC! I was really shocked.

And especially shocked to see an average pace WAYYYYYYYYYYYY faster than I thought I'd have--especially since I was pushing JayZ. I usually don't take my watch on runs with him because I figure I'll be slow and it's nice to just run with my little guy without splits, you know? But I was pleasantly surprised--no, elated is a better word--to see what (for me) is a pretty good clip with an average HR of 157.


Wow.

The grand experiment which is the Cleveland Half Marathon is going to be really interesting. My mileage is nowhere NEAR what I wanted it to be, but things still seem to be clicking for me...knock on wood. We'll see what happens this weekend, as I have a 14 miler with my last few at race pace.

I also have a few peeps to give shout-outs to--My NUTTER girls!* First, congratulations to Cerveza and her hubby Dave, who both ran their first half marathons in Columbus 2 weeks ago and ROCKED IT! I am so proud of both of them!

Next, I have to give BIG SHOUT OUTS to my other NUTTER girls racing this weekend--Hedda, who is doing her first half marathon EVAH! I am sooooo proud of her--she's a new mommy who's managing to balance a little guy, a job, and training for her first half! WAY TO GO HEDDA--if I was there I'd throw a tart in your general direction ;) And to Lush and her hubby Tyson, who will also be tackling the Mini for I think the 4th time this year? They ROCK and I smell HUUUUUUGGGGEEEE PRs for both of them! Lushious has been running so strong and I can't wait to see her kick butt! And to my girl Jacks, who will be taking on the Flying Pig this weekend--go get 'em, girl! :) She's become quite the tri-chick, too--can't wait to head to ChiTown to hang with her and then go to WIBA in about 2 months!


Last but not least, best of luck to Coach Emily who will be heading to St. Croix for the 70.3 this weekend! I might be a LITTLE jealous of her on the beach. But not of her climbing that hill. Holy cow! GOOOOOO Coach Emily!


Gotta go cut some of my tulips--we might have frost tonight so I want to cut a few for our kitchen and for my classroom!

Spring's here and I'm soooooooooooooooooooo excited to be racing! I might have a big race announcement soon...it involves me traveling rather far and totally violating my "I only race if I can drive there" policy, but this would be SO fun that I can't pass it up. I'll keep ya posted!

*NUTTERS are my chicas that I lived with senior year of college...AGD girls, and since our mascot was a squirrel...(yeah, seriously a squirrel)...we named our house "The Nuthouse." Oh, and everyone at Miami names their houses. It's just what you do. Some are quite dirrrrty, actually, and ours was pretty tame. So that's how we came up with NUTTERS. I won't tell you what happened when the guys next door stole our sign. You don't want to know.