I was runnin

People have been wanting to know why in my last post I was running three times in a day. Well........ I have joined an awesome running group that is made up of mostly women in my ward and then some friends from other places. I started running with them last July. We were running three days a week in the morning at 5am. At first we were just running for exercise, fun and a chance to socialize. After we did our first 1/2 marathon we decided to compile a team of 12 runners and to sign up for the Ragnar Relay. We have been training for it ever since. Our group has morphed into a fabulous running team. We love it. We now run four days a week together. We have been doing hill training, speed work, long runs (up to 18 miles) trail running amd even running up to three times in one day. Some of us even got in some high altitude training. Our big race is this weekend. It starts on my birthday. The race is a relay race that starts in Prescott, AZ and ends in Mesa, AZ. It is 200 miles long and we have about 24 hours to complete it. We are each running three different legs that very in distance and difficulty. It will start in a decent elevation and run along highways, through neighborhoods, dirt trails and end in a nearby park. It has been kind of a logistical nightmare to plan for and get ready for all of this. We each took on two jobs from coaching to decorating the vehicles to gathering night bike riders that will ride next to us while it is dark and so on. We have all worked really hard and everyone is super excited. Alan can't wait for it to be over so my trainging will go down significantly. It really has gotten in the way of family stuff quite a few times. My 18 miler not only took three hours to run but when I finished I felt like I had the flu and couldn't do much the rest of the day. All of this running has consumed a lot of my time and concentration. I will be relieved to have it over but I will not stop running all together. Most of the girls want to do a marathon in the next couple of months as well. I don't know If I want to do that. I am happy with 1/2 marathons and 10K's. I just don't feel like that is something I have to do. I think that I enjoy running now more so than I even did in highschool. It is all the fun of a team without all of the pressure to perform. The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself. I tend to be a little competitive so I do push myself pretty hard and I love it. Sometimes during a race I wonder why but I always feel so good afterwards.

Anyways, wish us luck and come join us anytime if you would like. After this race we are actually thinking of switching it up a little and doing that P90X (or whatever it is called).