Ran with Team in Training Today

I got up early today, 6 am, and ran with my Team in Training buddy Rhonda and her new Team in Training running group. Rhonda and I trained together for our first marathons in the Spring Team in Training season earlier this year and she has become a mentor this season to help others. I was planning on riding 80 miles today to prepare for Hotter N Hell next weekend but I have a kick off meeting for Light the Night in a bit and I wouldn't have been able to ride the full amount. So instead I opted to run six today and ride 80 tomorrow.

Today was a little harder than I expected. I contribute that to a few things, a little dehydrated from just not drinking enough water, not enough nutrition because in general I don't eat well and I had done zero cardio all week. The latter is probably the main reason and of course, the reason can NOT be that I am just plan out of shape. :)

I was impressed with the group, they all did a great job. Rhonda's group is much larger than ours from last season. Last season it was just Rhonda, Susan our mentor and me. This year Rhonda has 10-12 that run in her group. I think that is better, gives you more people to talk to and bond with and when you lag behind a bit it is less noticeable because of all the people!

As usually I sweated like a horse. Is that even a real saying? Do horses sweat? I think the real saying is "sweat like a race horse" or is that "I have to pee like a race horse"? Whatever, I sweated, A LOT! (This will become a running theme in my blogs, no pun intended! LOL)

Since I hadn't done any cardio workout during the week I was huffing a bit and I'm pretty sure the look on my face was not pretty. I tend to grimace when I run like I am in constant pain, even when I'm not. Which is so funny because when I do yoga I have no expression on my face, even when the posture is really hard. Different sports, different facial expressions I guess.

The lake where Team in Training runs was packed. It was such a nice morning I guess everyone took the opportunity to come out and get their exercise on. As we were coming back towards the cars I was stuck by a man that had the WHITEST teeth! His mouth was slightly open and against his tan skin his teeth really stuck out. It reminded me of the Friends episode where Ross whitens his teeth right before a big date and the glow from being so bleached. This guy had teeth like that! Made me laugh which I needed at mile 5 of 6.

Thanks Rhonda for letting me tag along today, great run. You have an awesome group of runners! Off to the Light the Night Kick Off Meeting!

When riding slow is a benefit.

I love that Dallas allows people to have horses in the city. It is wonderful to see horses along the trails at White Rock Lake. What I don’t like is all the horse poop along the trails. If dog owners have to pick up after their dogs, why to horse owners not have to pick up after their horse? Horses make bigger poop and a lot more of it!

This was my thought today was I rode the trail around the lake. First, it smells. Second it is huge and takes up a good portion of the trail. At least dog poop is small and is usually just one pile. Horses seem to go and go and go. It was a long trail of poop today!

Besides the horse poop, today was a relatively calm day at the lake. Just one other thing caught my attention and that was the guy in front of me along mile 8 that blew his nose as he rode ahead of me. Now I know men do this, never heard of women doing it but maybe they do, but really, do you have to do it when others are around? For those of you that don’t know, this is where you hold one nostril closed and blow really hard through the other, blasting out the snot. This guy did this to both sides of his nose and basically blew snot onto the side of the road, then to add to it he spit, wiped his face and wiped his hand on his shorts. I’m just glad was I down wind enough to not get any overspray.