More training talk; are you bored yet?

Do go stop by GC's blog to offer a high-five for completing the first year of the rest of her healthy, fit life, won't you? She and I have a special affinity for each other, having learned that we were married by the same pastor in the same Las Vegas wedding chapel, 11 years apart. How's that for a small-world coincidence?

That pear tree has completely bloomed, and it's gorgeous. I love looking at it; it's beautiful from spring through fall. I took the new camera out and got a couple of so-so close-up shots of some flowering branches. I still have a lot to learn about this camera, but practice makes perfect. Right? Tell me I'm right!

This week's training schedule is supposed to be five "easy" runs – six miles yesterday, and five miles today, tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday. The last time they threw an easy week into the schedule made the following week much, much more difficult for me, so I might do a long run on Saturday, as I've been doing.

The road I live on forks 3.3 miles from my driveway, so I decided to just stick close to home yesterday and do 6.6 miles. The reason I haven't been training on this road is because it's very hilly and I didn't think I'd be able to match the suggested training pace. I surprised myself by beating the pace by more than 30 seconds per mile.

It was hard, but also kind of fun to be back out on "my" road. One of my neighbors is back from her winter break in Florida, the Amish community has grown from two households to five and their woodworking shop is going strong. The strawberry patch is covered with straw, they're building what will become a general store and the chicken coop is full! I think I counted six buggies parked outside one of the barns.

I was able to run partway up each hill except the last one, and completely up two of the early ones. I have the Shuffle loaded with a random mix of songs I like, not just songs I like to run to, and that helped a lot. I tend to match my pace to the beat of the song I'm listening to, and I probably would have had a coronary trying to keep up with some of those fast-paced selections on the upside of a hill. I certainly would have blown a knee out speeding downhill!

Today is weigh-in day; another week of staying the same. I didn't expect to lose, after that huge [insert sarcasm here] two-pound drop last week. I'm finding it very difficult impossible to stick to 1200 calories or less and continue training. I'm tempted to stop the weekly weigh-ins until after the half-marathon. This is usually not a good strategy; I think I'll be able to make up for less-than-optimal behavior by starving myself the last week before weighing myself. I'll probably keep doing the weekly check-in, but try not to be disappointed if the number doesn't change much.

It's hard not to be disappointed with staying the same today, though. I managed my food fairly well, although I ate more than 1200 calories every day except two. But I ran a total of 33 miles last week and walked an additional six [two on a rest day and four on Saturday]. Seems like if you're out there pounding the roads for that many miles you ought to see at least some progress on the scale.

Sigh.