Goodbye Zombie....Hello Humanoid!

Whew.....that was a sleepy ride I was on and I am glad to off the sleep train. I am a fully functioning human now. I can preform all tasks with my brain and body working together and I can even preform complex tasks such as driving and talking on the phone :). I can now see why people have such a problem with drivers talking on their cell phone. It is truly an advanced move and should not be done unless you are of advanced mind and body. Since I was out of it for few days I left my phone in the cup holder and just drove. The brain is no longer two steps behind or absent completely!

Workouts are back on track with three weight room adventures of which one was a solid hour of abs, I called "uncle" with about five minutes left as my mid-section was beginning to move all on it's own. I worked out with a trainer for the abs destruction and he thought it was great sport to break me. The other two sessions were upper body and then I did one lower body workout. From my hips up I am paralyzed and I can't raise my arms above my head without going very slow. Funny but I love it! It was great to be back in the weight room but my strength has diminished a bit which is to be expected. After next week I won't see my gym for one solid month. I will miss the workouts and my gym friends a lot. Body Builders and Fitness Competitors are another group of completely insane driven people with fabulous bodies. I just love hanging around them in the gym, talking and learning about their sport. They motivate me a lot.

Running has been going well too. Sunday was a nice 90 minute shake down run in Forest Park. Monday I ran up and down our road while Alex used his scooter. We waited until it was hot so I could get some heat training. Ultra and Bandit went too and Ultra was just fine but I have the laziest Husky on the planet! He just laid down in the middle of the road and waited for us to come back. I know it was hot but he does this all the time even in the cool woods. We have had some amazing temperatures for the Portland area......just over 100 degrees. It's quite the news story and everywhere you go people are hiding from the heat while I am loving the opportunity to get in the heat and not have to use the steam room. Last night a few of us met for a fabulous run up to Council Crest. There is a great trail right off Terrwilliger Blvd. that heads up to Council Crest where on a clear day you can get almost a 360 degree view of Portland and all the surrounding Mountains. The trail section is 3.2 miles one way so we started near the Chart House and ran up and back. With temperatures at 100 degrees or better we were all prepared to enjoy the suffering. We were somewhat disappointed with the cool breeze that flowed through the woods making our heat run less HOT! It was only about 85 degrees in the trees but we were all sweating a ton and most of us only brought one water bottle and the fountains were turned off at Council Crest so anyone that had water left was at risk of a group tackle :). We had a lot of catching up to do and lots of stories to share, it was a great time and got me pumped up.

I started my planning for Vermont, yeah!!!!!! I actually have a preliminary pace chart done and began gathering my stuff for the trip. If anyone has splits from this race and they would like to share I would love to have them!!! The website doesn't have any splits so I am just guessing, I like to have an idea of how long it takes me to get to various aid stations so I can plan my fuel. Despite my "ho hum" attitude I expressed in earlier posts I am now getting excited. Sophia (blog commenter) has gotten me more focused and revved up....THANK YOU! I know Vermont won't be my best performance and I okay with that because I am super excited about Leadville but I am anxious to see the Vermont rollers and how my body adapts to them. Being from the climb 3000 feet descend 2500 feet and climb another 2000 feet and descend another 2500 feet part of the NW I am curious what it's like to roll up and down 400-500 foot hills. I bet it has it's own element of quad thrashing and that has been expressed by a couple of people so I know it's gonna hurt :).

So far, the weather forecast for the Vermont 100M looks fine with even a chance of showers. I know that can change daily but hey, if it rains I will feel right at home! I have heard the rain in Vermont is more like a down pour but bring on the mud and slop....I know I can handle that :). Tomorrow is my last long run before my taper. Tom, Kris and I are heading to the coast range for 3 hours on the Wilson River Trail. I have a 20 min. hill repeat scheduled for tomorrow and I ready, I miss Black Saturday's. After that run I have one more sort of hard push, a marathon pace run on Lief which I am doing this Saturday. Marathon pace for me is 7:24 and Lief will be a gravel rolling road like some of the Vermont terrain. It's been awhile since I have done a M-Pace run and I have to hold 7:24 for about one hour.....stay tuned to see how that goes.