What I've been up to

It has been a pretty busy couple of weeks since the NY tri, mostly because I'm on vacation until after Labor Day which means I'm free to roam all over. The plans for vacation were simple when it started: spend a little time at the beach with Mom and family, spend some time cleaning out excess stuff in the apt, get some new furniture and relax. Oh and train plenty for the upcoming Philly half and NYC marathon.
The first week of vacation went by quickly because I had to work a little on my private cases (kids I see outside of my regular job) and we were planning a trip to Canada for the weekend. Thursday morning (the 19th) I got up for a run at Mom's house feeling sluggish but wanting to get in a few more miles before the 5K that night. I moseyed out the door, ambled down the street a bit while I got my iPod set up to listen to Dump Runner's Club podcast and finally took a few running steps. Not more than 3 steps into my run I felt a sharp pain in my upper quad, it felt like a car had shot a rock at me, but there was no car. I lifted up my shorts to inspect and out flew a WASP! No, not an old lady who belongs in the Hamptons at this time of year, but an actual devilish wasp. He'd stung me and my leg was red, but I tried to run anyway (it was a no go.OW) so I instead gimped back home to ice it. It turns out he'd stung me twice! Ow, ow, ow. I iced a bit and headed back out for a measely 3 or so miles. It was actually kind of fun to go out for such a short run.
Thursday night was the final 5K of the Van Cortlandt Park summer series and I REALLY wanted to be there. These races have become a sort of family-like get together. I've gotten to know a bunch of the other runners and often see people thatI know from twitter or just through friends. I didn't have much time to warm up so I knew this race was going to hurt a bit. I'll spare you the details of the first 2 miles except to say I *finally* ran a respectable 2nd mile in 8:17 (my previous ones have been upwards of 8:35, ouch) on that difficult hilly mile. I was pushing hard to catch a girl in front of me who looked like she might be in my age group because I really wanted to "Muffin" for the last race. I was hot on her trail until I got a tightness in my diaphragm that threatened to sideline me. It hurt like crazy, but I assessed and found that I could still breathe and run, so I made myself keep going. As we hit the flats for the last 1/2 mi, a guy yelled out "you're 3rd and 4th females...you can still catch them!" Oh feck. I spent the next cruel 800m or so fighting it out in my head, "you can catch them!" "but its going to HURRRT, I don't wanna!" "too bad, it'll be great to be top 3, look that girl ahead is losing it a little!" "no, she isn't!" It went on and on like that, but in the end I was gaining very slowly on the girl who had been in 2nd for much of the race. With 200m or so left to go, I turned on the burners and passed her!! It was enough effort to leave me heaving at the finish, always the sign of a solid effort. It was also a course PR for me at 22:54. I walked away with a muffin for my age group and 3rd place female overall. Sweet.
6:58 first mile, 8:17 second mile, 6:58 3rd mile and 0:39 last push at a 6:05 pace! woah.

Immediately after the race, I drove home and hubby and I drove up to The 1000 Islands region of Canada where we enjoyed a really wonderful weekend. We did some jet skiing, tubing, water skiing (well I did, hubby wimped out) and plenty of reading and relaxing. I also swam around his family's island which was fun except where I got in a mess of weeds. Ew, I do not like weeds. It was a really great weekend, but being on the island (which is mostly rocky with trees and their house and cabins) meant no long run for the weekend. I was okay with that, I needed to chill.

Since I didn't get my long run in on the weekend, I needed to tackle it early in the week. Monday was rainy and icky and I was feeling tight from the long car ride home, so I just did an easy 3.5 miles or so in my park, Fort Tryon, while hubby did his post-work yoga. It was misty and drizzly, but the temp was great and there were plenty of other people out running. It felt good to be moving again.

Tuesday was a busy day for me with seeing kids and running around town, so I planned to do my 13-15 miles that evening. Yikes, evening long runs are hard, but lucky for me- Maria needed to do some miles too and offered to join me if I could wait until after she got out of work. I was more than happy to wait in order to have company! We met at Columbus circle and decided on a lower Manhattan perimeter loop to give us about 13 miles. It was a great run with excellent company (even if she did have to make a few, um, stops along the way.) :) We got in nearly 13 miles and I was starved by the time we finished! I raided Whole Foods for some chocolate soymilk, rolls and an apple before heading home. I never could have finished that run on my own, thanks M!

So here comes the crappy part of the story... the Thursday of the wasp sting/VCP5K/drive to Canada, husband told me that he was going to London (I knew that already) but earlier than he anticipated and he was to be staying over Labor day weekend, so I had been invited to come along for the 12 day trip!! OMG, right? So I spend the weekend and early part of last week being cautiously excited, because nothing is ever set in stone. On Wed morning, we were under the impression that we'd be leaving Thursday night and obviously they weren't going to go back on their word, so I was safe to get excited for the trip. I took the car and extra cat food down to NJ on Wed, did some shopping for the trip, etc. Wed night before heading back to the city via (gasp) train or bus, I got the call that the plans had changed, no more stay over the weekend, blah blah some other bullshit, and I was no longer going to London on my free 12 day trip. Well fuckity fuck, that was some really shitty news. I had planned out runs in London, made plans with friends of friends to get together, nearly registered for a 5K and WHOOSH, the wind was knocked out of me. It was a huge dissapointment and I still feel bad that husband had to break the news to me after his work told him the news. Ouch.

Anyway, here I am relaxing and shopping in NJ while trying to make the most of my remaining staycation. Yeah, I know its hard to feel sympathy for someone who's had their free trip to London taken away... but it sucks. What's worse- my hubby is there now enjoying himself and I'm trying very hard to be happy for him, but it comes with little pangs of sadness and jealousy that I'm not there too. I'm done moping and sniffling, but I'm still not entirely over it. Okay enough of that, this isn't a livejournal for feck sake.

So that's what I've been up to for the last week or so, how about you?