Pass the Duct Tape? My Ass-Kicking Button is Broken.

This will not be your normal weekend recap post. Not that you expect anything normal or regulated around here in the first place, but I felt the need to preface with that anyway for some reason.

Sarah Mac – Oiselle teammate, marketing guru, and sweat-wick model extraordinaire – was in town (the story behind the visit HERE). Despite the trip’s unfortunate circumstance  and my anxiety over ‘OMG how do you entertain an elite runner who’s missing their goal race?!!’ we managed to have a pretty good time.

Sweat-testing some new threads including YES THE NEW SPORTS BRAS (more on those later this week), lawn games in the alley bc duh you can’t drink on the beach, Nuun mixologizing, brown bagging at a delicious BYOB Thai place, running the pool table AND the jukebox at the skuzziest dive in all of Newport, Vine and driving biking, auditioning (and failing) for a bird model spot, duffy boating and getting to know a teammate a little better.

Solid 27 hours, IMO.

But since weekends are for long runs, lets talk about running for a second.

We’re seven weeks out from Eugene, and my ass-kicking button is broken. I (somehow) ran 49 miles last week, half of which I didn’t wear a watch for and 98% of which I didn’t give a flying F about pace or effort or what type of “workout” it was supposed to be. Just plain old running. Junk miles.

I *hate* junk miles.

This is the heat of training and I’ve pulled my inner “but I don’t wannaaaa” five year old out way too often for someone who usually thrives on those ball-busting workouts. Yes, it’s better than last week where I completely bagged the miles all together, but my lack of enthusiasm towards running hard is slightly concerning. And I want it back.

So I did what every normal person (at least I hope) would do – I signed up for the ultimate pain-fest reality check, a 5K this weekend.

My unofficial “wtf is wrong with you?!” psych self-evaluation during LR walk break #15 is that I don’t have that fear that marathon training instills in you. Like, you better freaking get those 20 milers in or you might really not survive on race day. With the half, I’m all,

“Whatever, I can go run 13.1 miles right NOW, what’s this run going to do? Shave a few seconds off my finish time? pshhh, whatever. Let’s go get froyo.”

(related : Yogurtland has Lucky Charms marshmallows now. all those years picking them out and leaving a bag full of boring cereal have been redeemed!)

Just getting miles in and enjoying the simple act of running would be fine if my goal was just to finish in Eugene, but that’s not the case. I want a PR. I want to run fast. I want to see what I can REALLY do. I want that fighter back.

And this Sunday will be a nice wake up call on how much work I’ve got to catch up on to get there. I’m scared excited already.

Sarah OUaL

ps the RACER Wall Frame winner was Shanna C! (she already knows) Congrats!