Catching Up - Races, Travelling, Training

I haven't posted since May 9th.  
I haven't been a very good blogger lately.  I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary or anything; I just haven't been keeping up on blogging!  All of a sudden, my iPhone won't email pictures to me anymore and I have no idea why.  That makes it harder to get the pictures I take on the phone to use on the blog.
I've run a few races, volunteered at a race, taken a couple of short trips, tamed a feral kitten, had some great runs and had some really bad runs.
A week ago Saturday, June 28,  was one of the really bad ones.  I ran eleven miles but after mile 7 it got tough.  I walked a couple of times up hills.  I was so upset.  I don't know why it was so hard.  The next day, Sunday, I only ran three miles but that was very difficult.  I wasn't quite back to my car when I hit three miles and I just walked the rest of the way back; I never do that.  Monday I tried to do a tempo run but that didn't quite go as planned.  I ended up doing mile repeats.  I made it two miles then had to stop and rest about a minute and then again at the third mile before running the fourth mile.  I guess it's better than nothing!  I wasn't looking forward to Friday which was the Hanover Firecracker 5 miler at all.  I was very surprised that I ran good and never had to walk up any hills, and there are three big ones on this course!  I came in at 44:20 which is an 8:52 pace.  I even got third in my age group!!  After the race I changed in my "changing room" in the backseat of my car behind the tinted windows and raced over to Grass Lake where the rest of the family was getting lined up for the parade with our vintage tractors.  We pulled our church float with one of them and I walked along beside the float passing out invitations to the Vacation Bible School.  I still had Garmie on so I reset her and started it again and I walked 1.84 miles in the parade!
My cousin who lives in Alaska was home visiting his parents (my Aunt and Uncle) so we had a get together there yesterday so I didn't go to long run group.  My sister who lives in California was able to come and attend the party so I got to see her too!  My sister-in- law and I talked about our plans to run the Vegas Half Marathon in November!  She hasn't been running since we ran the Chicago Marathon but she's getting ready to start training again.
Today I was going to head to Chelsea to go for a run when I saw on Facebook that one of my running friends was running on my favorite route and posted a couple of pictures so I decided to drive 15 minutes more and run on my favorite trails!
Argo Pond was beautiful today with the sun shining on the water.

Argo Pond

I always love passing this sign:

Do not enter 

This is an old road that has been closed for a long time.  The do not enter sign is for cars.  It is ok to walk, run, or bike on it.  It's just kind of fun to run past the "do not enter" sign!  I only run through here occasionally; it adds about a mile to my run.
There is also an old leftover sign from when the road was still a road.  I love this sign:

sharp curve ahead

I'm now training for my four half marathons this fall.  I am training for my goal race which is the Women Run the D women's half in Detroit on Sept. 21.  It's 11 weeks away now!  I ordered a book called, "Run Less, Run Faster".  I somewhat followed the first week of training but had to make some changes because of the 4th of July race.  I also spent an entire day helping my very pregnant niece with  some things she needs to do before the baby comes so I missed the speed work out that day.

I can hardly believe that the 4th of July has passed.  After the 4th of July summers just seem to fly by.  After the winter we had I want this summer to last a very long time.
Tomorrow is back to normal life.  I have a corner piece of cake, too many pulled pork sliders, more cake, cookies, two oversized meals on the 4th, and ice cream twice to work off and recover from!  It's always a fun weekend when the 4th falls on a Friday!

A big storm is brewing; what great timing, right when the holiday weekend is over and it's time to go to bed!

Runner Nerd
celebrates the country's birthday

Loving the Weather

How many March 17ths do we, in southeast Michigan, get to go running in shorts and sleeveless shirts??  No hat, No gloves, No tights, only 1 layer on March 17th!!!
I went to my favorite 4.5mile route which begins in Bandemer Park.  I can remember running this route during the winter in past years and how difficult it was for the 3/4 mile stretch through the Argo woods trail trudging though the deep snow!  Today, March 17th, Argo Pond was full of rowing crews out there rowing when there should be people out there ice skating!!  There were even 2 boats of 4 shirtless U of M dudes!!  I was staring a bit too much and I ran into the fence that runs along between the trail and the railroad track!
I had a great run; the Huron River provided wonderful scenery and entertainment!!  Lots of ducks are back!!  Two ducks were meandering across Island drive and then a car turned off Maiden lane and the ducks were in the middle of the road so I was clapping my hands and stomping my feet to get them moving but they just stood there looking at me like I was a nut!  The car beeped it's horn and the ducks took off across!  I guess I wasn't scary enough!  I found mud on the old Cedar Bend Drive!!!  Muddy shoes at the end of a run is always good!  One thing about the detour back to Argo (which I had to take because the little bridge between the dam and canoe livery is completely out) is that it adds two giant hills to the route, whereas the trail along the headrace is flat. I could take the headrace trail out but if I had come back that way, I wouldn't be able to continue on through Argo.  It also adds about 3/4 mile to the run and with taking Cedar Bend made my run 5 miles instead of 4.  I can't believe how many other people I saw out there running!  Even though I usually run alone, it is always so cool to see others out running.  There were also many people walking, walking dogs, pushing strollers and lots of bikes.  I think there were even more people out than I'd see on a summer day.  Weather this unseasonably warm is quite a draw to the outdoors!
The last 1/4 mile of my run was tough.  Hard to believe that I only have 4.75 miles of endurance in me these days.  I felt really good after the run.  I do still enjoy running; I just don't run very well these days. 
I don't have class on Monday so I did not do any school work today!!  Tomorrow I will be in my spot in the library all afternoon and then I will go running again.
I got a 98 on a test last week and another 98 this week - nerd status maintained!!!!  My ICU clinicals are going well; I love working in the ICU.  My patients are very sick.  Something I have noticed in these last 2 months of working in the ICU is that there are very few patients in the ICU who did not smoke.  That's all I'm saying for now; I'm organizing my thoughts for a future post on this subject.  I am very much looking forward to my new career as a respiratory therapist even more now.
Ok, time for bed.  Runner Nerd is tired from running!!

Runner Nerd
non-smoker forever