“We should all start to live before we get too old.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” 

― Marilyn Monroe

 

Just a little update on what’s been going on in my life the past few days.  For starters, I went ahead and signed up for the Bimbler’s Bluff 50K.  I was pretty excited about it until I made the mistake of reading a blog entry of someone who ran it last year… now I’m cautiously excited. lol  It sounds like it is going to be absolutely BRUTAL.  They said the climbs and descents are ridiculously steep…(? ridiculously steep = life threateningly dangerous…it’s a possibility).  On the bright side, at least I have more faith in my running skills than my cycling!  Also, at least the climbs won’t be at altitude and over 13 miles straight up like Pike’s Peak last year, right?  I know in my head and heart I can do it.  The question is whether I can train enough between now and then to be the least amount of miserable possible… 🙂  If nothing else, I do have the fact that I love trail running in my favor!

In other riveting news, I got my personalized footwear recommendation from Optimal Run, which you can check out here if you happen to be interested.  Patton, my personal shoe advisor, is clearly super enthusiastic about his job.  I totally loved all his energy in the video.  In fact, it almost made me want to quit my job and go work for these people instead.  I think I could live a happy life selling running shoes… especially if I got paid to test them as part of my job.

Anyway, I ended up ordering the Innov 8 model he recommended because I LOVE my Innov 8 X Talons and I am hoping to love the road version as much.  The part that sold me is they were on sale $20 off AND it was free priority shipping with a 40 day any condition return policy.  Plus, I figure any company that is going to go through the trouble to get to know me through a (pretty in depth) survey and by reading my blog prior to making a shoe recommendation definitely deserves my business.  My shipping tracker says my new kicks are due to arrive tomorrow, so I will definitively keep you all posted on what I think once I get a chance to test them out!

Oh, and speaking of testing things out, I made it through my very first clip in pedal ride on my bike the other day; and I am extremely pleased to report that I NOT ONLY did not die or get seriously maimed, but also made it through all the intersections without falling over.  In fact, I only fell once when I missed the turn for the car and my bike tipped in the wrong direction… ie. the direction of my clipped in foot rather than the one that was out.  Overall, I’d say it was a pretty successful ride.  I think we did 12 miles in total.  I wouldn’t say I’m as comfortable on it yet as I am with the mountain bike, but I did A LOT better than I expected.

Of course, I felt even better about it after reading this awesome blog post from Fit and Feminist.  I already thought she was pretty awesome; but now that I know she too is fighting the very reasonable fear of getting horribly injured while riding too fast, I think I like her even better.  In all seriousness though, it definitely made me feel like less of a chicken to read that someone else was struggling with all the same fears.  The fact that she has graduated to riding downhill without using breaks AND can drink from her water bottle without stopping gives me hope that someday I can get there too!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! I will be spending mine at work, but hopefully the holiday will keep people home and make for a smooth day tomorrow.  A girl can hope, right?