weekend off from cross means...

a week of doing everything else!

ok, so, top secret. with a weekend home and planning to cheer on teammates at the ChiCrossCup race anyway, I thought I might try my hand... yeah, yeah, I'm not allowed to buy any more bikes and I can't get into cross in the slightest but hell, why not try?

so last night, Audrey and I ventured out on our mountain bikes into the park where the rain was falling and the orange streetlights lit everything in 80's hues of neon orange, green, and purple. It was muddy fun, but a serious workout, and within an hour we both had mounts and dismounts down and were panting like dogs. I can assure you that i'll be a craptastic cross racer (as if that's any different than how i ride MTB) but it should be an interesting experience. I have no doubt, though, that my place is NOT on the course.

this morning's run was the 5th day in a row, which wouldn't be recommended in any training plan. so, it would only make sense that after running injury-free for several months, my left calf somewhat exploded and feels all torn and angry. i can definitely work through it with some smart stretching and a day off (heavens forbid!) but it's just one of those "i knew better" sort of situations.

Amanda can't make the 5k on saturday anymore, so a race that was just for her is now about me. I haven't been training toward a 5k and have no idea how to pace for it. I'm looking at my morning run times and since they include missed stoplights, etc, i figure i can pull 10 sec off my mile times there. So, let's say goal pace is to finish in... 27-28 min? I'll need to get a little more precise, but if I pace for 28 and then feel great I'll feel like a winner, versus pacing for 27 and failing. Yeah.

and I hate spam like the rest of us, but this is indeed funny:

If you bought $1000 of stock a year ago, you would now have:
$10.40 if you bought Washington Mutual
$37.50 if you bought Neomagic
$21.29 if you bought Freddie Mac
$20.79 if you bought Fannie Mae
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank
all the beer, then turned in the cans for the recycling REFUND...
You would have $.. 214.00 in cash.
So the best investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It's called the 401-Keg Plan