As George Costanza would say....

"I'm back, baby!"

(I really, really wanted a video clip for that but there is no such two-second clip available.)

After my achy, difficult Monday morning run I had no idea what to expect on Wednesday... but it was a great run. Most of the achiness had dissipated by Monday night anyway, and on Tuesday I did my usual cross-trainer/elliptical and yoga at the Y, and walked to and from work and the Y, allowing my legs to recover in time for my final pre-half-marathon run Wednesday morning.

My plan was to run two miles slow (I take a lot of warm-up), one mile fast, one mile slow, one more mile fast, then the rest of the way home slowly. Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 11:01 (typical first mile out of the house)
Mile 2 - 9:50 (wow! that's fast for a warm-up mile, for me)
Mile 3 - 9:06 (right on track)
Mile 4 - 10:03 (satisfactory)
Mile 5 - 8:28 (woo-hoo! that's blistering for me when there's no race involved)
Mile 5.68 (the rest of the way home) - 6:56 (10:15 pace)

So maybe Anacortes won't be a disaster after all. Wait! I must stop this negative thinking. Let me change that to—"Maybe Anacortes will go even better than I'm expecting." I think it will.

Tapering this week has allowed me a little easiness in my usual routine. On Wednesday, since I had the run in the morning, I skipped out on Pilates after work (again) to go buy plants at Molbak's instead. It's a combination tapering/summer schedule/slacker thing. I have been missing Pilates for a couple of weeks for various reasons and as soon as I get back next week I'm back on track, okay?

Today (Thursday) I would normally get up super early and be at the Y to work out at 5:30, followed by yoga at 6:00. But they've recently changed the yoga time to 6:30 (as I found out Tuesday morning when I presented myself at the locked, dark gym), and that's not going to work for me if I'm walking to work. So (again starting next week) I'm going to switch that early morning yoga slot to lifting weights (which I haven't had time to do for about two years). And since I'm not going to spend a full hour lifting weights, I can probably get to the Y at 6 instead of 5:30 from now on. Hurrah for that!

So anyhow, since I wasn't going to yoga anyway, I skipped the Y this morning altogether. I walked to work though, and I'm still undecided whether to go to yoga tonight. I really want to... but the class is at 7:15 and I really could also use some time to do laundry and pack for the weekend. Decisions, decisions.

But tomorrow is a true rest day prior to Saturday's race. I am not going to lift a finger, or a leg, in physical exercise. And I'm eating carbs! Which should pretty much put back the four pounds I've lost in water weight this week. Oh well, I can diet next week. After the race. And the post-race cinnamon roll. And the wedding Saturday evening. And the cake and wine that goes with that. And the rest of the weekend on Orcas Island (for which I'm not packing any of my own food—no packets of oatmeal!) And so forth—you can see where this is going! (Right to my belly and thighs, most likely.)