The Bike Room is Open for Business!

I have been pretty much MIA the past week since the race.  I spent the time trying to get better.  I took almost a full week off of running, which is something I hardly ever do when I still have races on the schedule.  I tried to rest up, which was a lot easier since Keira did not have school or Ryan work, and I got to sleep in a bit.  I ate a TON, but some would say that is excusable the week after a big race.  However, I am paying for it now.  I feel all squishy.  I swam for the first time in 2 weeks yesterday and was not happy about putting a bathing suit on.  I think our gym mirrors make you look skinny, though, because I seriously felt a lot better about myself once I got there, which is rare.  Usually I feel like a rockstar looking at myself at home, then get in public in front of other people and freak out.  Anyway, I am trying to get back into the swing of things by eating well.  I am able to get back into the gym to swim and have a decent (if not agressive) workout schedule planned. 

While I did not do a lot of running (any) last week, Ryan (mostly) and I worked on the house quite a bit.  I watch the HGTV house hunters show and see all these people getting their first homes and are like, "we want to fix/change stuff so we want a fixer upper"and then get all overwhelmed.  I am really thankful we found a house that was essentially "move in ready" because the amount of work to make it "ours" has really been huge.  I seriously cannot imagine how much time and money would have been spent if we had bought a fixer upper, although some of the things maybe it would have been easier to justify spending the money to "fix" floors/walls/window treatment that were really broken rather than just replace/repaint things that worked just fine, but were not to our taste or not "brand new".  I would actually love to refinish the kitchen floors and replace the fridge, but I don't think we will do it.  The kids are still young enough that the floors will just get trashed by them even more.  I am paranoid about the new carpet as is.  I guess to me when I think of a fixer upper, I think of major renovation, like repairing things, and not just the cosmetics that we did.  Anyway, back to the subject, we got our bike room fixed up!  Well, it is usable.  We sorted through the stuff in our storage area and got it all organized.  We set up the trainer in a "permanent" location, and there is already a platform to mount our laptop to play DVDs.  We don't have a DVD player on the big TV in the basement, but I am expecting that at some point, I will move the trainer out into the living space to watch big TV on the trainer.  Ryan likes to do Sufferfest DVDs, and I just do my own workouts using my watch and the playlists that I create.  His way is probably better, but mine keeps me engaged and I can catch up on my shows better.

On another note, Cristina called me up today and informed me that I need to find another race to qualify to NYC.  She qualified with her full marathon time at Martian, when I qualified for Boston.  However, with the new time standards, even she will be cut from NYC in 2013, but wants to run it one last time.  Argh.  I am feeling very frustrated with my decision to do the Louisville Sport Comission race on 11/12.  It is not flat, and I am missing out on a flat half HERE in Louisville this Sunday because I think I would be stupid to try to race it given how sick I was and my foot still bothering me.   It is pretty much comfortable bare, in flip flops, or my Uggs.  Anything else and it doesn't feel so hot.  The week off didn't really help, but I am sure it was because not only was I trying to recover from the race, I was trying to recover from being sick too.    I am really tempted to do the Monumental, but I don't have the money for the drive or a hotel, let alone entry fee.  Also, to complicate things we have RSVPed to a birthday party for the kids that day.  There is a lady from the area going, and I might just need to call her and find out her arrangements.  I don't know who is going with her.  It would also make the Sports Commission half pretty much suck even more.  I looked at the elevation chart today and it has 3 miles in a row that look about like the Ambassador Bridge.  Now I know why some of the ladies from this area that were supposed to be doing it with me have bowed out.  Nothing like signing up for a race and having your ladies bail on you!  Two are having legit health issues, and one may still run despite them.

So, this is where I need some help.  There is a half in Ashland, OH on Dec 3.  This is about 1.5 hours from my parents house, which means it could be feasible that I do it without a hotel.  I don't know if my parents will be around, though, they might be retrieving my brother from NYU where he is finishing grad school sometime in Dec.  There are also a few other potential people I could crash with, but this race doesn't seem very flat either.  I looked at the elevation, and while there are no huge climbs, the entire course is rolling.  I am not sure how I feel about that.  It has about half the elevation changes as the LSC, though, and I am locked into that.  Do I try to head out to Indy?  Do I just hope that being not sick will give me the miracle I need at LSC?  Do you know of any other halves that are close that I can do that are flat?  There is one in Bloomington, IN, but I am now getting my dates all confused in my head and I can't remember when that one is.  Cristina said I should try to pull some strings with the race directors that I know and have them set up a new race as a "last chance for NYC".  The scary thing is that it looking like it might win, although I doubt I could get it pulled off in time. There is an unofficial marathon that is run in MI on New Year's day every year.  Perhaps getting it sanctioned would work????  I don't know, I have reservations about racing on Sundays due to it being the sabbath, and I feel like I almost can't qualify to anything by racing on a Sunday, like it won't get me any closer to my goals.  I qualified to Boston on a Sat, and get to run it on a Monday.  I am guessing I have until Jan 31st, 2012, based on the 2011 qualification process, so we will see.