I have changed the appearance of my blog.  I didn’t like how things were laid out and the purple.  I could have changed the color, I know but I wanted a more streamlined look.  In the process I have screwed up where things were located on the menu.  I’m not sure this one is better – but I’m still working on it.

As I was messing around with my blog and happen to notice my count down widget and it is now at 6 months!  Man….time is passing quickly.  I’m glad I still have plenty of time….I’m glad I have plenty of time….I’m starting to feel nervous!  Planning hasn’t extended past Dublin yet.  Meaning I’m still deciding what to do after the marathon.  I’m meeting a girlfriend there and we are still volleying around what we want to do next.  It’s exciting, but I need to get a move on.  I’m slooowly going through Rick Steves “Ireland” book.  Which is phenomenal by the way.  So I need to decide where and what to see next.  I have already received a change of itinerary from my friends at Aer Lingus ~ thank goodness it’s nothing big, but dang!

This weeks training was decent.  I continue to focus on strength training and can see much improvement and lessening of pain in my left knee and lower back.  Honestly, strength training is something I should always keep as part of my routine, but I tend to let that go.  Sometimes I have a tendency just to want to ride and run.

I ran twice this week.  The goal was to get up to 4 miles comfortably.  The first run was great.  I felt good and had a decent pace.  The second run can only be described as Sir Sucks A lot.  I was dragging.  It was funny because my body felt fine but I was breathless.  I had to stop and walk a bit then picked up and ran the rest.  Had a great ride, of course:

Was able to complete 23.3 miles.  The weather here has been great lately.  I love this cycling jersey!  You can’t see it but there is a big cat on the front.

I was going to make Sunday my rest day, but I decided to go to South Mountain for a little hike.  I had every intention of just going up one of the mountains and ended up on a nice 2.79 mile hike on the rim of about three of the mountains there.  It was a trail that I’ve never taken before and ended up being really neat.

Pretty steep going down.  I should have brought my hydration pack but I was carrying a water bottle.  So I was doing the one hand shimmy.

Phoenix behind me.

This was really interesting.  As I was ascending there was this nook that was barred up.  A guy was there trying hard to take a photo.  I asked what is this and he said it was graffiti from the 1500s of Friar Marco de Niza.  So, I Googled and sure enough a Spanish explorer.  Amazing.  You can see 1539 towards the bottom.  Click here to find out more:

http://www.psi.edu/about/staff/hartmann/coronado/journeyofmarcosdeniza.html

I completed 85.52 miles in March ~ a heavy climb from the 35 in February.  I hope to keep climbing.  I am about 1200 miles from the halfway point.  I am still excited about my journey.  So many new experiences to have.  This week I completed 34.07 miles.  There are 6905.34 miles waiting.  Happy Miles to You!!