Details of the week so far.

January 1st came in with sheets of rain behind windows. I was supposed to meet Gail - finally, after 3 weeks she and her husband Sid spent in Argentina visiting their daughter. I walked through their door, still coughing, and caught their smiles. The verdict was unanimous: we are going for breakfast! The three of us hardly found an open place to sit down and have an omelet and never ending coffee, discussing plans, more plans, races and training, pacing each other and running together (or not), and more plans. I have to say - Gail is a friend. I often get intimidated by her, I might hide away, we may disagree for some things and be different in others, I could have faster days, she could be stronger on another...but she never fails to be a friend. I can always expect to hear the truth from her, good or bad. Not the praise, not the compliment, but what she really thinks of me and of all whatever happening. I can count on her be there for me in trouble - not with words, but with doings. She doesn't talk much - unless, of course, we are on the Gorge run:) She states what she'd offer and then simply does it...Time flew fast.

Workouts for the week:

Monday - stationary bike 45 min, jump rope 5x100, ab excercise 300, CrossFit with Oleg 30 min, yoga asanas 10 min (that's a start).

Tuesday - am: 3M slow, on roads. School started; need to work out wake up call.
pm: 5M really fast since a long time in pouring rain, it felt absolutely incredible! Was my heart feeling the phone call that came later at night about Alex getting voted for level 4 and that we can come and pick him up any time now? We cracked a bottle of Champaine - that Soviet Champaine we didn't drink on New Year's eve. When the time rolled on December 31st, it just suddenly felt wrong to celebrate something we anticipated to meet as a whole family. This day it was exactly what we needed.

Wednesday - am: 45 min Power Yoga (Baron Baptiste style) - a real class! Oh, my, almost 2 years...there was a reason I had great seasons in 2004 and 2005, practicing religiously. It was fun to realize I had to adapt some of the postures, especially on my left side, as my torn hamstring definitely shortened tremendously. But overall it was very nice, like you hit the right spot, came home from a long journey.
pm: 6M road run, another pretty good one, with remainder of the sunrays finding way to warm me up. Hopped on stationary bike for 25 min right after, did 15 min upper body weights and 100 abs - ok, slacker, I was hungry:)

Thursday - am: 4M easy run
pm: 15M. Needed to fit a long-ish run since the weekend will be busy. Not quite as prescribed, but I did what I could, something between Scott's 2:30 and my own of 3 hrs (2:40 total time). 10 miles on Marquam hilly trails from work to the Zoo and back (mud, mud, but no rain), then 5M roads home. I enjoyed this run a lot! I could submerge in memories of running here with Mike Bushwhacker (the only running partner I shared Marquam run with besides Oleg in my first year, before Oleg became too fast for me), I could glimpse at new fallen trees, check my watch for arrival times at specific points... The fact that I haven't run long lingers with my forgetting to lube the trouble spots to prevent rubbing and caring only one water bottle again (actually, I forgot my hand-held all-together and took a regular Montrail bottle from work, yet it worked well, better than I feared). Turning to Terwilliger Blvd after hitting the short steep hills of Marquam was funny - how the perception of "what hill is" changes. I couldn't decide what is "better" on the dark road run: total absence of lights on a sidewalk in trees or blinding lights of upcoming traffic:) Luckily, I finished the trail portion of the run a couple of minutes before sun went down. I ran in Montrail Masai, and it is not very good for roads, but (to Anonymous who left a comment on injury) I do own road shoes (plus a light shoe for track workouts), this day was just mostly planned on trails.
Injury-related: my left lower leg is much better, no "collapsing", only a slight weakening by the end of the run. I say it appeared because of the fall and was muscle-nerve connection twitched or to this extend.
Illness-related: after 5 days of Ampicillin my chest is well, my cough is softer and wet-er, but then I had scratching sore throat for 2 days, While I was deciding if I should have another round of antibiotic, it all diappeared during this run. Go figure!

Friday - am: 7M total with 6x600m on the track. Let's go suffer, darling! "Happiness is not a state to arrive, but a manner of traveling" - M.L.Runbeck
pm: driving to Montana

Saturday - off, nada, family.

Sunday - if all goes as planned without any complications, the boys (all 3 of them) should go shopping for new clothes (also for all 3 of them, but especially for Alex). I should be able to squeeze a couple hours. If not - I'll get one hour. If not - I don't really care. May be all I'd want to do is to watch my boy's face, run my hand trough his hair and hold his hand.