Training, Determination, Crazy

In life there is a fine line between normal and crazy, this line gets more blurred when it comes to racers.  Racers in training are worse.
Let me tell you a little story:

Patrick and I went over to Daytona Beach for his work and some R & R.  Our first run was on the beach going to lunch.  We thought we were going to be late so he jogged out 3 miles on the sand, barefoot.  The sand on the east coast is different than our sand here.  It
is courser and impacted more- making running a LOT easier to run on than here in our soft, loose sand.  Given the unplanned run we ended up with some calf tension.  I also ended up with a few blisters and REALLY dry feet.  The reward: great food and time with family.

2nd Day- Shoes.  Tennis shoes and sand- WEIRD!

Then I tried biking the following day.  Turn out that part of A1A is not cycling friendly.  I nearly got taken out by a Publix truck who had plenty of room to move over.  There are also no great places to lock up your bike when you need to run into a store.  It was frustrating.
The following day I decided I was going to go out on a walk along the beach. The weather was cloudy and windy as a storm front pushed past.  I was planning on going 2 miles out and 2 miles back.  Turns out I went 4 miles out and 4 miles back.  I did some light jogging along the way.  It was hard not to jog out there; it was windy and some cloud coverage; plus, a few showers.  And the view was spectacular.  I felt better after this exercise event having gone some distance.
Then Wednesday we biked on our way to an unplanned stop at Universal Studios and to surprise my mother for her birthday.  It was a 25 miles.  The trail was very nice.  Some wooden bridges, some shaded areas, and great paths off the road.  Patrick had a rough ride due to his bike not being adjusted to him yet. 
We went to Universal Studios afterwards and walked a few miles.  We also participated in their Fear Factor Stunt Show- which utilized upper body strength.  We got to my parent's home around 11 that night.  Then up at 5am to go to Busch Gardens for my mother's birthday, again walking a few miles.

This set us up for the crazy part.  We drove home, getting here at about 230am.  We got up at 5am to go run a 5K.  Even funnier is the factor that we both had a good run.  Maybe lack of sleep for a few days is helpful.  That said I think I will not plan things this way again!
It would have been easy to not have showed up to the 5K this morning.  We could have run the distance anytime today.  It would have been easy to say we had a long night.  But where is the fun in that!  And that is what this craziness is suppose to be about: Having FUN!!!
So how did we train for IMCHOO this week?  We ran in new places.  We improved our alertness as to traffic.  We pushed through stormy conditions.  We stayed up late to know what midnight would feel like.  We rode roller coasters to mess with our heads a little.  We saw family to mess with our emotions a little.  Then to end out the training week we raced a 5K on sheer exhaustion!!!!
It was a good training plan.