A breakup letter of sorts

Dear John (I mean Motorola),

We have had a long and tumultuous relationship, and I'm sorry, but I just have to break up with you. I know, you are the third boyfriend and our total history isn't totally on you.... Especially the second one that got struck by lightning, that one is definitely the faulty surge protector's fault. But things have to end now.

I will admit that you were a very good boyfriend for the most part. You kept me entertained on those nights when it was just the two of us. Heck, you were even game to entertain many people on occasion - that's a special kind of guy. But there was that one time when you forgot the record "Grey's Anatomy" for me, and that can never be forgiven.

I have decided to move on, to let you go and entertain some other lucky girl, or boy, or family. It's better this way and I think we'll both be happier in the end. I just can't afford to shell out that much money every month just to be with you. Especially when there are less expensive and free options out there.

Dear Motorola, it's not you - it's me. I'm sorry. I will be taking you back to Charter tomorrow.

I hope you have a great life, and I will miss you.

All the best,
Erin

Thursday's Run

After Tuesday's awesome run, I was excited to go out again on Thursday, albeit hesitant with the scheduled run as it was written out. Turns out the start of the run was supposed to be 3 minutes brisk running, not 3 miles as was written. My running friends and I decided that 3 minutes wasn't quite long enough, so we ended up doing 1 mile. So Thursday's workout was 1 mile brisk, 3 minutes jog, followed by 1 mile at goal race pace and 2 minutes jog repeated 3 times. I am pretty proud of how closely I got to my goal pace of 8:40 - we hovered around 8:15 to 8:30 in the 1 mile runs, which Coach said was pretty good. And the workout wasn't too hard. On Thursday I ran 5.12 miles in 43:40, for an average pace of 8:32.

Saturday's Run - The BIG ONE

Last year I trained and ran the half marathon at Grandma's. The longest run I did for training for that was 14 miles, which pretty much kicked my butt. Yesterday's long run was up the shore, and was 16 miles. It is an understatement to say that I was scared and intimidated by this distance. But that's what running friends are for - they help you out and keep you going when you feel like you're going to quit, they do jazz hands with you on the mile and tell you "You can DO IT!" And, of course, in typical Duluth fashion, the weather was pretty crappy on Saturday morning - wind in our faces on the way out accompanied by ice pellets that did an amazing job of exfoliating every single visible pore. Needless to say the way back was MUCH better. And I did it - I ran 16 miles and it wasn't too bad. I figured out that Shot Bloks are pretty good and I think that's going to be my fuel of choice for right now. I figured out that wearing compression socks after my shower really helped keep my calves from feeling like complete ass. And I figured out that my running friends are pretty much the awesomest people ever - Mae, Ben and the newest of our group Cassie are pretty great people. But now what torture are we going to have to endure NEXT Saturday...

It just looks cold, doesn't it?

Today's Run

Even though I was pretty exhausted and a bit achy, I stuck to my schedule of going to the Y to lift and get an easy run in on the dreadmill. And I was pleasantly surprised that after 10 minutes of kinda torture the rest of my run was really good. Until I stopped. Then my legs were like "WHAT THE HELL WOMAN!" Nothing a lot of stretching didn't cure. Today I ran 3.1 miles in 30 minutes, for an average pace of 9:40. And I am so glad tomorrow is a day off.