Tomatoes Rule!

Hey guys! I hope you all had awesome weekends! Ours is not over, because we are taking some time off this week! WOO HOO! We plan on relaxing and working around the house. We have PLENTY to do here!! (OF COURSE BLOGGER IS NOT COOPERATING, so you'll have to click on links for pics. GRRRR!)

Our weekend has been great. We had tons and tons of rain on Friday, so Friday night we just chilled at home and worked more on the drywall we were putting up in our bathroom. Saturday am the dog alarm went off before the real alarm. Pippin is a machine. He is well aware that we get up at the hour of "ungodly" M-F so on S & S he wants to make sure we are running right on schedule - so if we're not up he is going to wake us up. Correction, he is going to wake ME up. So, at 6:30 am (which is much better than most weekends) I get the scratch, scratch, scratch and a whimper. UGH! The alarm was set for 6:45, dog!! I still climbed back in bed until 7:30, which was fine because the rain had really cooled things off so we wouldn't get baked if we started out later than usual. Some oatmeal down the hatch and we loaded up in the car to run at PWP. Now that we're back in the regular training routine it was time to go and have some hills kick our butt! We haven't run at PWP since our intense hillwork in March & April getting ready for the Flying Pig Half. Last Saturday we ran 11.2 here, but that was flat and fast, the plan for this Sat was 12-13 of killer hills which is 5x harder! We started out slow and easy and I was instantly reminded how much I hate hills!! AND, how out of practice I've gotten with them. First hill behind us we started settling back in. The temp was only 75, it was a little muggy from the previous night's rain but I can't complain. An August day that like is rare here, it was really more like a May day. PWP isn't closed to cars, so we usually don't wear our headphones. It's also full of cyclists who can get some serious speed going so I really don't want to get run over by one of them, either!

Our plan was to run the 11.2 loop of the park, and add some additional miles on after. We're running a TOUGH marathon here on November 19th, so we've got to really start picking up miles in the park or we are going to be in a SERIOUS mess in November! I have to say, I was REALLY impressed with my Garmin. I got the new 205 in May, right before the Pig, and since then most of my running has been pretty vanilla neighborhoods. With my old 201 I never made it further than .2 miles on the 11.2 loop before my Garmin cut out. On Saturday, Garmin hung with us the whole way! For some reason it cut out on the big road we did at the end, at got stuck at 11.87 miles even though I had measured out a 12.5 mile course for us. Whatever, at least it was really great on the heavily treed areas! Neither one of us was loving the tough hills on Saturday, but we took them one at a .time and made it. One of the worse ones is towards the end, around mile 10. We built ourselves up and tackled the beast!! Afterwards you're rewarded with a couple of miles of sharp downhill, but by that point your legs are shot and the downhills hurt just as badly as the uphills. We rejoiced our accomplishment at the large stone gates and then ran down Belle Meade Blvd enjoying the massive mansions for a couple of extra, much easier miles! We have just over 3 months to get ready for this marathon, so I think we'll be ready by then. I don't plan for it to be a record setting run, AT ALL, this is just one to complete. All 100 spots all full now, so it sounds like it's going to be a blast! We're also thinking about doing the the Stump Jump 50K in October. Could we be ready for a tough, trail 50K by then? Doubtful, esp since we don't even own trail shoes. But do I think it would be fun? OH YEAH! Anyway, we're heavily considering it just as something fun to do, and cross into the ultra world!!

So, we finished our 12.5 and then headed home, incredibly proud of ourselves. All the festivities in our 'hood were starting up for the Tomato Festival!! We showered quickly and headed back out, on foot. First we swung past the B&B on our corner. They were serving tomato pie for $7 a slice. No thanks!! Good luck with that one! We headed up 16th and stopped at the tomato dressing up contest. They didn't have very many entries, but MY fave was the 5K tomato race! I love it!!! Obviously they are runners! From there we headed to 5 Points, the main event spot. There were lots of booths and bands providing entertainment. We walked through the art gallery, ate some overpriced hot dogs, and had a really nice time. We even ran into an old college mate and chatted with some neighbors for a while before heading back for a well earned nap.

Sat night we went out with a friend. I'll talk more about that tomorrow because it was quite an eventful night and I have photos to upload to go along with it.

Plans for tomorrow?? Who knows! Sleep in a bit, go for a run, and probably do some more painting here!! Have a great Monday!

Rachel