12 down.

I woke up this morning after four hours of sleep, looked outside, and saw pouring rain. No part of me wanted to get up and run 12 miles. Who would? But despite my incessant calling, the TNT North Team Hotline still let me know that we did have training today. Rats.

So, I suited up and got ready to face the rain. Despite my hesitation, it wasn't that bad! Certainly better than 90 degrees with humidity. The only real downside was when the rain slowed to a drizzle and the mosquitoes came out to feed on us.

Other than that? 12 miles down in about 3 hours. Slow? Yes. On pace for us? Yes.

Life is good.

I'm Back... and Married!

Yeah, I haven't posted in over a month. But I'm back and ready to go. Sorry for the lack of posting! Let's re-cap what's been going on that may have resulted in inattention to this blog.





June 7: Last day of my first year of teaching
June 17: My then fiance, now husband, had an emergency appendectomy
June 21: I got hitched!
June 25 - July 8: Honeymoon!
July 8: Rescued a 1.5 year old lab/collie mix, who may be the cutest dog ever.
July 10: Schaumburg Flyers Fundraiser

Yeah... it's been busy. But I've got 10 miles in the morning... on hills... and I'm ready to go!

Sinus Infection + Marathon Training =

Me being a total slacker.


But it's okay if the doctor told me to take it easy... right?



*sigh*

Do you like baseball? Read on...

Who: You, of course! (And anyone you'd like to bring!)

What: A Schaumburg Flyers game to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

When: July 10, 2008 at 7:05 pm

Where: Alexian Field, 1999 Springinsguth Rd, SchaumburgWhy: You pay face value for your tickets -- $10 each -- and all you have to do is show up and enjoy the game! $2 of each ticket purchased goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! What do you have to lose?

I'm heading up this fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training North Team. All of the LLS proceeds will go straight into our fundraising accounts for the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, California! Please let me know if you'd like to attend and how many tickets you'd like. The Flyers are taking the money straight from my credit card... so you can just give me cash or check for your tickets. Hope to see all of you there! Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

If you have any questions or want to reserve your tickets, e-mail lauren.erbach@gmail.com

Reason #3,476 Why I Need TNT

On Saturday, it didn't fit into my schedule to make it out for the TEAM run. It was far away, and I had to be at my friend's house at 11:15 to get on a train to Chicago for my Bachelorette party. That doesn't mean I didn't run. What it does mean is I didn't run very well.

Melissa and I met up around 8:00 for our 1 hour run. I was so distracted it's a wonder we even finished. I was thinking about what I was going to wear later that day, whether everyone would be there on time, fundraising, anything but running. I just could not focus on what I was doing, and couldn't get in to that appropriately distracted mode where the miles just fly by. I missed running with my gaggle of girls and I missed running with the team.

I can't wait to hit the pavement on Saturday...

Cross-Training On Demand & Learning How to Stretch

Tuesday's workout this week called for 45 minutes of cross-training. I didn't feel like biking and I didn't know what else to do... so I turned on the TV and found something new: On Demand Fitness. I found a few Pilates workouts that added up to about 45 minutes and gave it a go. It was actually a pretty decent workout.

However, it got me thinking. How weird would it be to be someone who makes workout videos? They weren't even your typical workout videos, where it's like an instructor is leading a class and a camera crew just happened to show up. This was one lady, on a mat, spouting encouraging words to some camera guy. I find myself getting really irritated with their encouraging words. "You can do it!" "You're almost there!" "You're doing great!" How do you know I'm doing great? For all you know, I'm sitting on the couch, eating a Big Mac & fries, and watching you work out. But I digress...

Today's track workout was a blast. I'm glad I'm able to start all this stuff right away this season. I'm picking up on things I missed early in the season last year, like proper ways to stretch. Wow, I can already feel a difference from stretching today. Ran with two lovely TNT ladies tonight and loved every minute of it.

Patting Myself on the Back & Ditching the iPod for Saturdays...

First things first. I have to pat myself on the back. I am not a morning person by any means, and I forced myself out of bed for a solo morning run on Friday! No one to answer to but myself and I did it. Hooray! (I couldn't do an evening run because Dad and I went to see Jersey Boys, which by the way, was excellent.) I wasn't quite as even keel by myself... but I was pretty good. The dips are walking (I was run/walking at a 6:2 ratio), and most of my runs are even, but I have no idea what that spike at the beginning is. Perhaps I was feeling speedy?

Today was a 5 mile training run with TNT. Can I just say that I love my teammates? I ran with Melissa, Lauren, and an alumni, Miss Sue. Jennifer was with us for some of the time too. It's so nice to run with a group! And we rocked a 6:2 ratio with an overall 11:52 pace. Total time for 5 miles was 59:22. I'll take it. I didn't take the iPod/Nike+ out with me today, and I have to say, I really enjoyed chatting with the girls as we ran. As much as I'm addicted to the instant feedback of the Nike+, it was nice to just ignore everything and run. That is probably going to become my new Saturday mantra.

Ahhh. I know there will be setbacks, but I hope most of the season feels this good.