Wow.  April 15th.  Where does the time go?  February 22nd seems so long ago. 

A lot has happened in that time.  Three days after my last post our family dog Gretal was hit and killed by a car.  Very tramatic for our little family.  We miss her so much!  Two weeks later on a Saturday, we adopted another schnauzer from the animal shelter.  She was sick and we didn't know it when we brought her home.  She spent Monday at the vet's, they sent her home Monday night to stay with us and she died early Tuesday morning.  I know right.  So sad.   I know this is crazy but a week later we adopted TWO schnauzers from a family.  We love them!  They are great dogs and I wouldn't hesitate having two dogs ever!  Mixed into the drama I've been running and eating and running some more. Spent spring break in Vegas with Brian's sisters.  We've just been have a busy life.

The Ogden Marathon is just over one month away!  Yikes!  I was able to drive the course yesterday.  It was going to be fun!  A lot of downhill.  I hope in the next four long runs I can get some more downhill in.  Saturday was our 18 mile run.  I prepared for it all week.  Really stretching my IT band and carb loading at the end of the week.  That morning I woke up at three o'clock and had another bagel.  I felt really great the entire run.  Miles fourteen through sixteen were my hardest.  My body felt good, my IT band just kept getting tight.  I would stop and stretch every mile and then be able to run some more.  It never hurt to the point the my knee was killing me.  This time I notice my right hamstring getting tight more than anything.  I was shooting for the pace of 11:08 and ended up at 11:10 so I felt pretty good about it. 

When I got home I stretched and iced everything.  Then I got in the car for a two hour ride.  I seriously had to unfold myself when we stopped.  That was the worst!  Our destination was awesome though and I sat in the hot tub with the jets pounding my IT band, quads and hamstrings.  It felt great!  I did the same thing yesterday.  When I got out of the hot tub I rubbed my legs Deep Blue and I felt great!   I'm going today to buy "The Stick"  its a massage stick that is similar to foam rolling but much smaller and more convenient to carry.  That way I can massage my legs before a run and right after a run.  I think that would've helped my quads a lot.  I could have massaged them for the entire two hour ride -- man I wish I'd done that!

Well -- off to get my day started.  I have done some written planning which has helped a ton with my eating.  I'll talk about it sometime!

Angela - I hope your snow melts and you can get a run in!  You are running right?