Lots happened. I just didn't blog about it.

So much has happened over the past month.  SO VERY MUCH.  Time for an update!

1) Colorama 2012: I ran my 10k in Milwaukee.  Well, outside of Milwaukee at Lapham Peak Park.  It was very beautiful:

Foliage!

The weather was great.  There was no Mr. Wisconsin Sun to mess things up.  Everything was perfect....except that you may have noticed one crucial word in the park's name: peak.  Yes, that means that there were hills.  In fact, Lapham Peak ascends to 1233 feet.  As you may recall, I am not very good at running hills or, as I learned, peaks.

What I do know is that I did just about as much as I could.  And I was stiff for the next 4 days.  And my legs were tired.  But hey, I worked hard.  The sad part is that I was still faster than the Beach to Beacon because while I may suck at hills, I totally suck in heat/humidity.

2) The Fall: no, not a pretty foliage kind of fall.  A hitting my head on concrete kind of fall.  This happened during my 16-mile long run (I have been keeping up with the long runs, even though I haven't blogged about them.  Twenty is coming up this weekend).  I tripped on slightly raised pavement and went chin first into the ground.  I also lost about 1/4 of my front tooth because I chipped it--I need to add here that it didn't hurt at all, although it was a pretty significant chip.  It was not nice.

I did get up and run another two miles, which made me feel like I was some kind of NFL tough guy or something.  Then I realized that this was probably an incredibly stupid idea since I had hit my head and there was no one there to see me if I ran into trouble.  So I went home and finished on the treadmill.

The result of the fall was a crown for my front tooth.  Not my favorite day.

3) After the Fall: as you do, I was worried for the next few runs that I would fall again and do something equally annoying as chipping my tooth.  I think that I may be dragging my left foot every once in a while and I definitely need new shoes.  But I have managed to get out since, including for the 18-mile long run, without incident.  So now I am mostly on track and ready to go.

Coming up: 20-mile run on Sunday (whoo!  Last of the long runs!!!!), then a 5k the next weekend.  This may not be my best idea, but I am out of town for a conference and I am supposed to run 4M according to the schedule.  I'm going to try and hold back, although I know that I'm not good at that.  We'll see.

I'm toying with the idea of trying to run a race in all 50 states.  So far I have Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.  So that's over 10%!  Plus I will get Louisiana after the 5k next weekend.  It's always good to have goals.

Everything is coming together

In 6 days, I am running the Beach to Beacon run in Maine.  Yay!  Maine!

Florida and I are not getting along so well right now.  It's too hot and humid (not surprising).  I got back Tuesday and did get out once for a 6-mile run.  Of course, it was more like a run/walk.  I survived it, but I certainly didn't enjoy it.

I also sat down tonight and did my marathon training plan.  It looks easy.  Maybe too easy.  Much easier than trying to do 6 half-marathons over 9 months, I can promise you that much.  Part of this is because it is a beginner's plan, whereas I had been doing intermediate plans for the half-marathons and the impending 10k.  Sure, there are long runs in the marathon plan, but only 4 that are over 12.  Yay!  And the other runs are relatively short, considering.  Yay!

The best part is that the training plan fits perfectly with when I need to be out of town for work, so I don't have to do crazy rearranging to get everything to fit.  This includes a weekend when I will be in Milwaukee for a conference.  It just happens to be a taper week (only 5M for the long run!  YAY!!!) and I am supposed to run a 10k that weekend.  By even more awesome coincidence, I found one.  It is the Colorama 10k that takes place at Lapham Peak.  Why is it called Colorama?  Because the leaves will have changed!

CHANGING LEAVES!!!!  YAY, YAY, YAY!!!!  Because we don't usually get so much of that here in Florida.

Yep, I'm excited.  As you can probably tell.  Even though I would still prefer being in the Melbourne winter.