Four Fabulous Four

Have you ever waited six months for something? Really. Have you ever thought about it EVERY day for six months? Have you ever had to DO something about it for six months? Every day. Almost.

I have waited that long only for one other thing in my life. And waiting for that was NOT pleasant. At all. But I couldn't do much about it other than wait, so in that sense, these past six months, since they were full of proactive measure, haven't been as bad.

That's not to say that I'm not still SUPER excited that these six months are almost over, though. Because as of today, the Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego is less than FOUR weeks away. And I can handle FOUR weeks. They will be FOUR focused weeks. FOUR killer weeks. But there are only FOUR now. FOUR!!!!

I started the Final FOUR this morning with a trip to the gym. Where I put up some SERIOUS weight on the bench press. FOUR sets of 65 pounds for ten reps on the flat bench, then FOUR sets of 45 pounds for 15 reps on the incline bench. Followed by FOUR sets of 45 pounds for 15 reps on the butterfly-thingy. Then I did some triceps work.

For such serious (for me) lifting, I am not really seeing any results. And that just doesn't seem fair. I don't really enjoy lifting all that much. And yet, I have incorporated it into my little *training* plan. And sure, I guess I do FEEL stronger, but I can't SEE the strength. And I think I deserve to see the strength. In the form of smaller, less flabbby. But I can still sqeeze my tricep flab. I'm doing it now, actually. I have definition, yes, but alas, I also STILL have sqeezable triceps flab. But my biceps are looking pretty good, actually. GUNS! And I guess the armpit flab is harder to find. Yes, armpit flab. Men know nothing of this irritating womenly troublespot. But armpit flab hangs over your strapless dress, negating all sex appeal of said dress. And while I'm sure men only look at our cleavage when we're in a strapless dress, we women only see our armpit flab. It sucks, but there are very specific cases that make us men and women and what we focus on when strapless dresses are in the picture is one of them.

With my time battling the big boys for a bench in the gym to lift my *SERIOUS* weights over, I headed outside for my recovery run. Down Polk Street towards the Marina Green and Krissy Field. Trying to maintain a 9:15/mile pace. Trying. Really. I really was trying. So hard. But there were so many other runners out, and I just kept wanting to catch up with them.

And honestly, I'm so bad at pacing myself without mile markers and clocks, these days. What used to feel hard, now feels like nothing. My frame of reference is all jumbled. It's kind of like when you've lost weight, and you go shopping to buy a new dress. Perhaps a strapless dress, now. You're in the store, looking at dresses, and you keep reaching for your old size. Because you look at the new size and wonder how your TOE will ever fit into that tubular fabric, let alone your stomach, thighs, and armpit flab. That's kind of how my running is right now. I still feel like this respectable but not super talented runner inside the body of someone who is actually pretty good, and very capable of hauling ass. Her own ass, even. Sans armpit flab.

So I get back to the gym after what I thought was my out and back 4 mile easy recovery run. And since it took me me 37:45, I figured I did an OK job at attempting to maintain 9:15/mile pace. But later, while playing around on Gmaps Pedometer, I learned my 4 miles was really 4.5 miles. Which means my easy recovery run was really more of a GOAL MARATHON RACE PACE run, done at an average pace of 8:23/mile. Oops.

I'd still give it four stars, though. (****) For effort and performance.

And so, with four being the number of the day, I thought it would be a good time to share with everyone that I received my race information last week while I was in Chicago...

Race Number: 4425
Corral: 4

FOUR!!!! I'm in Corral #4!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO WORLD!

And already I have butterflies. Because I don't think I could have picked a better corral for my fourth Marathon. FOUR Fabulous FOUR. It's gonna be a great race!