It's almost Friturday oh boy oh boy oh boy!

This week I have decided not to worry about my weight.  Why?

Because Ragnar is almost here, that's why.  I have better things to worry about, like what I will wear on my three runs, what the weather will be like, and what matches Spotted Cow shorts.  Oh, and not overpacking. I always freaking overpack.

One thing I always worry about it how to train the week of a Ragnar.  I mean, I know I'm not supposed to go out and run a marathon or anything, but I always have a hard time drawing the line between "training" and "tapering."  I decided to go on a bike ride for 12 miles yesterday, and finally managed to shift the front gear to the larger sprocket.  Because I was afraid I wouldn't ever get it back on that big ol' sprocket, I didn't shift the front gear for the entire ride, which made the middle of the ride suck when I hit some rolling hills.  That was also the same time that I met tons of other bikers in some sort of biking event (there were arrows all over the road) and kind of hijacked their event for about a mile.  When I kept going straight when they turned, all I heard behind me was:

"HEY!  YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TURN HERE!"

I embarrassed myself and I wasn't even in the event.  Fabulous.

Today I decided to go on a 5 mile run, and the weather was gorgeous--tenmperatures in the 40s, no wind...the only thing that was amiss about this morning's run was some pretty wicked fog:

Instagram magic!  But it really was that foggy.

The other thing that was amiss was some new and unusual scenery along one of my normal running routes.  Remember, I run out in the country, ladies and gents, so gravel and dirt roads are always sneaking up on me.  Imagine my surprise when I came upon this along a gravel road near my house:

Dishes, books, two TVs, and what's left of a mattress.

God bless America, where you can burn random trash on mattresses on any country road you choose.  Isn't the right to bonfire wherever you like (or surreptitiously burn your ex's mattress and favorite TVs and dishes  in a fiery manner) in the 2nd Amendment or something? I don't know, but what I do know is that if there had been any hint of human remains on this thing, I would have turned tail screaming like I was the one on fire.

Other than the odd new scenery, the run was very nice.  My quads were more tired than usual from the bike ride the day before, but I was busting out some 9:22s and an 8:50 on the last mile, and was feeling pretty groovy.  Tomorrow I would like to do one last shorter bike ride, and do some small speed work on Wednesday.  Thursday it's yoga, because then it's Friturday, people!

I can't believe it's Monday and I'm this excited already.  I can only imagine how worked up I'll be by the end of the week.