Monday Meanderings

1. My back hates me.  In mid-July, I experienced a back twinge that preceded two days of terrible-awful back spasms.  It was a good 10 days before I was running again.  Well, Saturday morning, as I was getting out of  car to meet my friend for a 10K hilly run, my back decided to act up again.  Twinge! Spasm! Ouch!  Thankfully, this time it wasn’t as bad as before and I here I am just a few days later and feeling well enough to run.  But I’m on guard.  If my back acts up again this week, I’m probably sitting out of the sprint tri that I have planned for the weekend (see #2))
2. The Patriot is cursed!  Okay, I don’t really believe that, but it sure has been poorly timed for me.   In 2008 I did this race wearing a knee brace shortly after my DNF at a local half-marathon.  The following year, I was signed up to do it again, but the race was just a few days after my dad died and I wasn’t in the right mental place to race safely, so I DNS.  I wanted to do it in 2010, but I had just gotten the all clear to run after having my knee treated and simply wasn’t in shape for it.  Now this year, my back decides to act up one week before the race.  *sigh*
3. I’m rethinking the remainder of my race calendar.  I have three potential events lined up in October, which is cool, but limits my actual training time and puts me into back-to-back races.  I"m now thinking that I may swap out one of my potential 10K races in October with something at the end of this month to spread things out a bit.  Stewing on that for a bit...
4. I love September!  This is one of my favorite months, mostly due to the weather.  It’s starting out great too, yesterday the high was 77.  Can you believe that, only 77?!?!  First time in a long time that it was something other than 90s and many days last week crept over 100.  Of course it only lasted one day, but it’s a sign that cooler weather is on the horizon.  Yay!
5. Husband & I rode the Patriot bike course today, or something close to it (not sure we turned around at exactly the right place, I measured it a little short). I thought the long climb in the middle would be the worst part, but instead, the worst part for me was actually the steep section between miles 12.5 & 13.0. Felt like I needed a grappling hook for that part. Yowzer!
   
   I now know that It's not going to be speedy, but I can do this.  I’ll post later this week about my expected splits and goals and such for the race.  
6. Three day weekends rock!  Not only do they make the long weekend special, they make the upcoming weekend arrive even faster.  I might even like the 4 day week after a 3 day weekend more than the 3 day weekend itself.  Is that strange?
7. I think orange Accelerade is my favorite because it reminds me of an orange dreamsicle or push-up treat, the kind I used to get from the ice cream truck when I was a kid.  Anyone with me on that?
8. Discovered a new Chobani flavor that I love - black cherry.  Have you tried that one? Totally yummy!  I didn't even know they made that kind until Husband brought one home after seeing it in the store.  Love it!
9. Sometime in the last month, I lost my camera.  Finally broke down and ordered a replacement, same model refurbished.  I was sure that ordering a new one would mean that the old one would turn up, but no luck.  At this point, I'm fairly sure I left it behind somewhere.  Bummer.