2 weeks to GO TIME

Thanks for bearing with me as I attempted to post the slide show from Photobucket. I apologize to all of you who receive a notification email when I post a new blog. I'm guessing you received three or more updates clogging up your inbox. Sorry about that. Technical difficulties.

To finish my blog from two weeks ago... I had one of the best birthdays ever! Sargent, Scout and I camped in the national forest about two miles from the town of Alma, CO and about 2 miles from the base of Mt. Bross. It was the most picturesque location... a mountain lake, sounds of a stream and waterfall, old mine tailings and out-buildings, all nestled in a little valley. It rained hard in the night, and we were worried for a bit that we might get washed away being so close to the lake and clearly in the flood plain. I should say Sargent worried, as I had my one beer and a Tylenol PM so I wasn't worried about anything. The sunrise the next morning was something from a John Fielder picture book. You can see for yourself in the slide show. I cannot put into words how lovely it was. Sargent slept through most of the sunrise, as he was up fretting about the rain all night, while I slept soundly in my chemical induced coma.

After a breakfast of hot coffee, oatmeal for me and stale pizza for Sargent, we started our hike up Mt. Bross. Again, you can see from the pictures just how awesomely amazing it was. I will stop describing it as I use words like "awesomely" which we all can do without.

Training - this last week was one of recovery for me, and I needed it. I have been having a lot of tension and pain in my neck and shoulders. I saw an acupuncturist / cranial massage person on Thursday, and went to the chiropractor on Friday. Needless to say, I was a mess. My neck hurt so bad it was hard for me to hold my head up, and my shoulders so tight they were nearly touching my ears. My regular massage person, Nancy, is out of town, so I had to see someone else. Sorry for cheating on you, Nancy. I feel a lot better today, but I'm nowhere near 100%. I have another week of chiropractic care, acupuncture, and massage to get me on the right track.

I have just two weeks to go until the marathon in Washington. As I said in the last post, training has gone very well, but I've been racing like crap. I think I have a good plan to get me through the marathon in Boston qualifying time, but we'll see. Tomorrow morning I'm planning on running 18 with Scout. The weather is great and it will be cool enough for Scout to run with me. It's been a while since she has been able to do the long runs because of the heat. But now we have a break in the heat and have even had some rain, so all is well.