Sunday Funday and Aiming High

I came home Monday night to find this waiting for me:

Not a bad way to start your week!  Of course it got me thinking about next years goals.  I had originally said I wanted to break 3:15, which would mean I'd have to take 1:03 off my time from last year.  Of course, G being the loving and supportive hubby that he is said "Good to see you're aiming high".  Oh SNAP.  He means well really, he does.  He believes that I am capable of more than that.   So, I decided to step outside my "feel safe" zone and aim high.  I put it out there on Instagram yesterday.

Yes, that says 3:10.  I get butterflies just thinking about it.  I'm going to be following the same plan I followed last year.   I really hope that my body can take it.  I'm sure I'll have a good idea in the first few weeks.  I'm not going to be an idiot about it.  I know it's going to be tough and if I find that I'm killing myself and not making any progress, I'm going to re-asses.   Next year's training plan will also involve a fair bit of cycling as well so I'm really going to have to listen to my body and make sure I get adequate recovery.

Speaking of recovery, I have recently been introduced to the most amazing pair of shoes ever.  Krysten posted about them a couple of months ago on Instagram and my interest was piqued.  She talked about how comfortable they were and called them her recovery shoe.  Then the lovely Michelle Clarke finally introduced me to my first pair of Barefooters.  Oh. My. Goodness.  These things are so comfortable.  I put them on at the end of the day and it feels like I have little minions massaging my feet.  I haven't worn them out of the house yet, mainly because it's been raining a lot and these are wee bit on the holey side.  You can bet that these will be my go to footwear for all my marathons both on the road and in the kitchen.  You can actually win a pair of your own from now until November 6th if you enter their #feelgreat selfie contest.  Details can be found here.  Who doesn't love a good selfie?  Ok maybe me.  I am a bit camera shy.  My feet aren't though. 

 

This was my first week back into my regular routine and it was tough.  I was still dragging my butt early in the week but I think I'm almost back to normal.  I ran 16km yesterday and it totally sucked, but I got it done and that's all that matters.  I had a monster swim this morning (almost 3km) followed by 1 hour on the computrainer.  Yes, the bike is back in my life.  It has to be.  I don't want to go into tri season playing catch up with my cycling.  Especially if there is the potential for something longer than a sprint.  That's all I'm saying about that right now.

There was a whole bunch of racing awesomeness this weekend with NYCM and the Hamilton Road to Hope happening.  My instagram feed was filled with images from NYCM.  Almost made me regret taking the money and running after last year.  But, I will go back.  I'm going to try and re-qualify in with a half sometime next year.   I had several Blends running the Hamilton Road to Hope:  Krysten, Christina and Danielle all raced.  Krysten ran the full and Christina & Danielle ran the half.  I have been coaching Danielle and her goal was to break 1:50 for the half.  I am proud to say that she killed it.  She ran a 1:48:46.  That totally made my day. 

Did you race this weekend?