super sunday

today i played in the fields of the lord, no ...wait. sorry ... i ran in the garden of the gods.

it was heavenly to see, though not so much to run. actually, that's not true. i enjoyed the run ... just not reading the pace calculator on mapmyrun later on.

i logged just over 8 of the slowest miles i have run since i started running in 1999. i told my coach i would dub this run "the ego crusher" except for the fact that i was proud of myself for sticking it out.
as you know (sorry to bore you with it repeatedly) the altitude has been tough on me and has really effected my training this past week. i usually tend to be a bit on the breathless side when swimming, biking or running ... but this is ridiculous. it feels like my head is in a vice and my lungs are in some sort of compression chamber.

there were a few brief moments on today's run when i felt more like myself and they were glorious. the fact that i am lucky to do this at all was not lost on me. i complain now about what my pace was, but the truth is it didn't get me down like a shitty run at home does. it was what it was and i was happy. a few people along the side of the road even gave me the thumbs up and yelled "good job!" it boosted me just like it does in a race. thank you!!

after my run i met up with j. i was beyond hungry, in fact ... i was a 9.5 out of 10 on the food emergency scale. i almost enacted jenni keil's "silent rule". the day i read that post was the day j.'s and my relationship (post workout) improved 10-fold. if you are in a relationship and happen to suffer from post-workout-low-blood sugar-rage, i suggest you try it.

all i could think about was noodles & co. i had been chatting about it with marit and the indonesian saute was swirling round in my head. we went. it was delicious. then there was an ice cream cone at josh + john's, a tour of the olympic training center, a drive through manitou springs and finally we swung by a place i had seen yesterday that i wanted to show j.

check out these amazing sculptures. they're done by a man named starr kempf.

dang, this is getting long and i still have so much more to report. like on last night's triathlon hall of fame induction banquet. and the one-on-one "pilates on the ball" class i wound up having the other day (no one else showed up) and the copious amounts of goose shit that adorn the walkways of the hotel property. but i'll save all that for another post. my hunger timer just went off again and if everyone is going to remain unharmed, it's best i go eat.

^..^