I like beer. And running.

With just over 3 weeks until Fox Valley, I've been busy running. A lot. I've turned into a blog sloth and hope to catch up with all your posts this weekend.


Last weekend, L and I went to Michigan for some beer. We went directly to the source of some of our favorite beers as well as some of the best breweries in America. We went to Founders, Jolly pumpkin, Bells, Dark Horse, The Livery and 3 Floyd's (in Indiana). I really appreciate the care and thought that goes into a craft brew. If you ever get a chance, check these breweries out (all of their beer is delicious!) and support the smaller guys!


Training has been going well. This weekend I've got an 18 miler with 10 miles at my goal marathon pace. It will probably be one of the more difficult runs I've done all season. I've even stressed way too much over this run because the Chicago Triathlon is happening on the lakefront this weekend- with events both Saturday and Sunday. I've Finally come up with a good plan to execute this run and am excited to get it done! And holy hell, after this week I've got one more long run before my taper!!!


Got to run with my favorite 4 legged buddy last night. It was on the warm side so we took it easy. There are few things in life that make me as happy as seeing this guy enjoy being outside.


With the marathon fast approaching, I'm excited to celebrate all the hard work I've put into this training cycle. I have been having some serious doubts about my goal and if it was realistic, but felt much better after seeing the splits from my last 20 miler. The file was corrupt so I was unable to upload it to garmin until last night. I actually posted the file to the Garmin forum and someone was able to fix it for me! SCORE!


Now seeing that nearly half of the miles were under 8:30, and that overall this run seemed pretty "easy" has given me a shot of confidence. I also ran an 8 mile tempo run the day before to have "dead" legs for the 20, so I'm quite pleased with my progress. The only thing left is really to decide what to wear for race day. I've got the shoes, and shorts figured out. But I have no idea which top I will wear. I'll have to wait until it gets closer to gameday.


Time to put my big girl pants on and stop thinking about elements out of my control- like the weather and remember that I've come a long way since earlier this year when I couldn't run a quarter of a mile without being in pain due to the hip flexor injury.

Cheers!

- xaar