Just started Week 8 of marathon training.  It is going awesome!  I have had a couple hic-ups along the way…..like…skipping much needed track workouts!  Bad. BAD!!  But as of next Tuesday I have a tried and true partner to keep me accountable at the track, early morning, once a week.  Life-Saver!  I know I neeeeeed to do it…why is it so difficult for me to do!?

My body is feeling so good.  Recovery has been phenomenal!  I’m happy about that!  I am really loving just training for one sport…for now.

I had such a great week last week.  First!  I had my cousins from The Burgh (Pittsburgh) here to visit.  They have never been to the Pacific NW.  It was fun to see our gorgeous area through their eyes.  We had a great time catching up, meeting their boys…it’s been 6 years since I’ve been home to Pittsburgh and they were minus 2 fabulous kiddos while we were there last.  We took a trip over to Montana for lunch.  They are on a 50 state quest..so I figured if they were THIS far, they needed to see MT.  We took the hour drive to have lunch in tiny St. Regis and then came home.  I wish I had a picture of my seat in their rental car.  I was between their boys, who were in car seats.  HA-HA!  I wedged in between them, in complete Heaven.  Ya see…their boys…total heart stealers.  I ate it up!  Their time here seemed too short and we are already looking forward to seeing them this fall when we head home (to my home) for a Steelers game!!

Also last week the Fall, September issue of Runners World magazine donned the shelves.  WHY was I so excited for THIS particular issue???  I mean, I have read RW cover to cover for years, and although I am always excited to open my mailbox and get it out…THIS time, I was jumping for joy!!  I was featured with four others in the Training Special as a Rule Breaker.  “Five Outliers Prove That to Run Well You Don’t Have to Follow the Laws All the Time”  Now, I think the title alone gives away something about me, and the life I live.  I have never been one to really conform to anything unless I wanted to.  Even when younger, I wasn’t much of a “follow the crowd” kind of girl.  I made my own way.  Meandered to my own drummer.  Charted my own path.  Did my own thing.  Made my own rules (within reason) and oftentimes BROKE the rules (again within reason)  The Hubs has called me a “rule breaker” since we met.  So when I was contacted about writing about “breaking the rules”  I was allllll over it and thought, “what could be more perfect?”  My page was about being a Vegan athlete, and how I break the rules in eating all the time.  So many have said, I could not run and race successfully while eating a completely plant based diet….well here ya go!  I proved that wrong.  And RW’s specialists agreed with me!

I had an awesome time writing the article, which I actually wrote WAY back in March while sitting on a beach in Costa Rica, having several back and forth e-mails with Runners World the months leading up to publication, and a great phone interview with RW about 6 weeks before it hit the shelves.  The whole experience was so fantastic.  And then to see the actual article, in print….that was amazing!  Kind of surreal to me to see my writing published, world-wide!  They did such a great job with the graphics, picture and how it was laid out.  I loved the way they showed my food diary.  They were very careful with details.  And LOVED that it was a full page.

My person copy will be framed in our office!!!

If you haven’t seen it, check me, and the other Rule Breakers out in this issue of Runners World.