Training Tuesday: A Two-fer

Belle lives in my car now

Have you entered my Fort2Base Race giveaway? There's still time!

I'm simultaneously training for two events - the Venus de Miles 60-mile bike ride this month and the Fox Valley Marathon Sept. 16. This means a lot of miles.  While Venus is technically a ride and not a race, it still requires some training because my ass needs to get used to being in the saddle for four hours at a time. Belle the bike and I are getting to spend a lot of time together.

Storm eminent

Two weeks ago, MacKenna and I set out for a 40-mile training ride starting at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. It was lovely and we were having a good time, but had no clue where we were going. At mile 25, MacKenna checked the directions on her phone. Turns out, we were 25 miles away from the cars. It was fun until about the last 10 miles. Then, it was quite literally a pain in the butt. We ended our ride mere minutes before a downpour.

This week, we met up with Jenny and biked the eastern half of the Venus course, which was gorgeous and slightly more hilly than our previous ride.  We saw horses and classic cars, along with a triathlon that we accidentally crashed near Lake Zurich.

In terms of running, I've had a few lows during the past two weeks.  My 14-mile run was terrible, but the 15-mile run was tolerable. My toes have been bothering me, so I went back to the shoe store that I bought my last pair of running shoes to see what I'm doing wrong. Two of my toes have callouses and I'm fairly certain I'll lose a toenail as a result. The salesperson told me my socks were terrible and probably the cause (cotton is rotten when it comes to socks, apparently). So I sucked it up and bought $11 socks. And while I was there, I might as well check out the clearance bin ... and hello ugly as sin Asics, you can come home with me.  And that, friends, is how you reach the $200 Dick Pond customer rewards threshold in a year. 

Jackie and me

Me and Rachael

Finally, you might have noticed in my race schedule that I signed up for another race. Rachael, Jackie and I are traveling up north to complete the Zooma half marathon.  Last year, Rachael and I went to Kentucky around the same weekend to do the Big Hit Half Marathon, so we figured we'd repeat it again this year in a new destination. It's a ladies-only race that rewards necklaces instead of medals and champagne at the finish line, so it sounds like it's right up my alley. Plus, some of my best blogging buddies are running it as ambassadors, so it should be an awesome time.