You may have been awful, but not as awful as me!

You know what the toughest thing is about training for a race/physical activity? It's that if you deviate from your schedule for any reason, you're suseptible to dropping right back to square one. At least that applies to me. Two weeks ago, I felt like I was making solid progress. I was running (actually jogging) and holding conversations with my teammates. I was running (again with the lies-JOGGING) to the gym, which is about 2 miles from my home and I was eating ever so properly.

Then, my daughter got sick. Like stomach virus sick. Like, she was bound to regurgitate anything ahe consumed within 30 minutes sick. So this week, I did nothing. No running (jogging), no time in the gym, no close monitoring of my diet. As anybody would do, it was all about tending to miss Olivia. And though I obviously don't have regrets, today was such a crappy training day. I miss one week, and I'm back to finishing next to last in our runs. You know it's bad when some dude who looks like he could be your dad passes you TWICE around the park loop.

When I finally got through practice, I started chatting it up with one of my teammates. I mention my busy week and he says to me, "I know what you mean, bro! I did horrible today. This week was brutal". Now he may have done poorly by his standards, but I didn't see him anywhere near me bringing up the rear, so how bad could it have been?

The running word this week is "cadence". My trainer basically says mine is too slow. So to speed up my "cadence"-and hence cut back on my bullfrog breathing-I should shorten my strides, stop bouncing and move with quicker steps (Wouldn't it take more energy to move with quicker steps?). Then he says that the tell-tale you're wasting too much energy is if you're unable to say your address without taking an extra breath. In which case, I may have to slow it down. Great. So before I was in the back because I was just too big, too out of shape, and too slow. Now, I may NEED to be in the back to work on my "cadence" and repeating my address with minimal effort. At least I have an excuse.

Happy holidays to all. Enjoy your family and friends, and don't forget to drop some coin in the donation. I've got people in my group already up to $2,000!