Oh lordy! I’ve been cleaning and packing up my rooms in preparation for the painter who begins painting EVERY SINGLE ROOM in my house on Monday. He said it’ll take about 5 or 6 days. Needless to say it’s been a bit like an archaeology dig. I keep uncovering candles, vases etc COVERED in dust. I’m actually planning on tossing a lot of the stuff. Note to self: No more fake or dried flowers like EVER. And may I say that I’m REALLY going to need my runs this week. I have so much anxiety just thinking about what COULD go wrong. I’m trying not to “spiral” as my boss says.

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Buh-Bye!

It’s been a little bit like when I first moved here (13 1/2 years ago)….a bunch of trips to the Home Depot where I think I Aisle 1 should just be named after me at this point. I bought a bunch of new light switch plates and some new lamps for the living room, some wood blinds, sink faucet and a wall sconce for my bathroom.

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$60 faucet + $350 for plumber to install faucet = time to date a plumber next?

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new lamps to help the dark corners. I wasn’t sure about them at first but the thought of dis-assembling, re-packing and returning them to Target seemed to daunting, so….I LOVE THEM! LOL!

It rained ALL day! So I took the dog to the pet store just to give him some excitement. Of course he was very naughty last night….for the first time ever he went into the garbage and left a mess. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of it.

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So I thought I’d “punish him” and make him stay in the way back of the Jeep (on our ride to the pet store mind you—punish, this wasn’t. lol!)

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is she feeling ok? What happened to my co-pilot status? It blows back here. Better give her my pathetic sad face. Oh right, I’ll just lean my chin like this…

Of course as soon as I went to back out of the driveway and saw that pathetic face I let him come up and ride shot gun with me. I’m a sucker.

Today’s “long run” was only 6 miles. Good thing because I have so much to do….I just don’t have time for a 20 miler. Thank god those are a couple months away! Although I have enough stress to reduce to last 100 miles easy.

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It felt like a nice easy run (except for the wind) but apparently I need to slow it down. I’m trying to keep long run days 60-90 seconds slower than race pace and I’m looking to keep a 10:40 average pace on race day (NJ Marathon) which means my long runs should be 11:40-12:10 min/mile pace (although I think that’s REALLY slow). My pace today was 10:22! I guess when a long run is only 6 miles it’s easier to feel fresh the whole time. I’m sure when it’s a 16 miler I’ll be right between 11:30 and 12:00 min/mile pace for sure.

On the training schedule for the week…
Monday: cross training which will probably be my trampoline and some resistance band work.
Tuesday: 3 mile fartlek on the treadmill at lunch because I already know I don’t want to get up early. Wednesday: OFF (Maybe just a walk of a few miles)
Thursday: 4 miles at an “as you feel” pace
Friday: OFF (Maybe just some stretching and foam rolling)
Saturday: 4 miles easy pace.
Sunday: 8 miles easy pace.

Question: How was your weekend? Did you clean? Was there dust? Are you a pack rat? Neat or messy?