Running while out of town and big life things (like entering new decades)

I spent most of this week in Connecticut visiting friends. It was glorious. A brief reprieve from the city, and laughing a lot with friends I haven't been able to spend any real time with in years. These girls were my rocks when we were all new to the life of being a submarine wife (rhyme, anyone?) in Hawaii. Now we are all old pros at this weird lifestyle and we can laugh and drink wine while exchanging our latest crazy stories. We refer to each other as 'husbands' since ours were always out to the damn sea (that whore).

yes to pastries and friends

I ran 6 miles (with 10x100m strides thrown in) on Tuesday, which conveniently landed me in the North End, so I bought pastries to take with me to CT. I might have been the most loved person in the room that night! I know the way to my friend's hearts - cannolis, whoopie pies, and cream puffs!

The weather seemed cooler down there and I enjoyed my runs. It was slightly unnerving to run on quiet, residential roads with no real sidewalks, though. I did 5 on Wednesday and 10 on Thursday. I think Thursday was my first official mid-week double digit run of this training cycle. I ran along the waterfront, which consisted of a lot of dilapidated houses (so sad, if only someone could save them) and then out to this beautiful point:

Ocean mist, ahhhhh

I liked the point so much I looped around it twice. Then we all went to the outlet stores for a little retail therapy. It was good week indeed. As much as I love Boston, sometimes you need to escape the hustle and get away.

So this is also big week in my life, I guess. I am in my last week of my 20s. I will be 30 next week. And honestly I thought I'd be totally cool with it, but suddenly I'm finding myself freaking out a little inside (and outside now, since I told all of you). I feel like I should have more things figured out by now; that generally I should have my shit together a little better than I do currently. I find myself thinking that maybe I dress to immaturely, or that I need to start up a new career. Basically, it's a a total mind game. I might write more on this later, but for now I'll keep my lamenting to myself.

We are going to Las Vegas to ring in my new decade (along with 12 other friends!), which probably means my marathon training will be shot to hell next week. Honestly, I'm not heartbroken over that. It's early enough in my training cycle that I think I might benefit from a little bit of a break. Now I just need to go shopping and find a really shiny, Vegas-worthy dress!

Also, big life things... sigh... I am seriously considering going off birth control. While I'm not quite ready to expand our family, I think it might not be in my too distant future, so I am considering pulling the plug on the pill. Has anyone else had any experience with quitting the pill while marathon training? I have not been off the pill in over 10 years. From what I recall, my periods were normal, if maybe on the heavy side. On the pill they are almost non-existent (like 2-3 days). This is certainly freaking me out, but I think it might be better to do it now. If anyone has any insight or experience, I'd love to hear about it.

It's supposed to be 90+ in Beantown this week so it's looking like Sunday's 15-miler will be done at the crack of dawn. I'm (not) looking forward to it. It exhausts me just thinking about it, but it's got to be done.

And on that note, I'll sign off.