Going into Labor Day weekend, I knew it was going to be challenging to fit in all my scheduled training runs.

I had three on the schedule:

• a 16-mile long run


• a 3-mile easy run


• an 8 mile hill workout

But I also had a weekend packed full with sports.

Friday night was booked with soccer.


Soccer game with Meg

Saturday was Maryland's home opener in football, which meant that day was lost to tailgating and fun with friends.


Girls at the tailgate


Band before the start of the game

Sunday was day one of a two-day softball tournament, followed by another soccer game, which I ended up bailing on because it was just too much.

And then Monday was day two of the softball tournament.

Labor Day weekend is like this for me pretty much every year, so I've come to learn that I can't put too much concern into whether or not all my runs happen, because most likely they won't.

So where did running end up fitting in to this crazy weekend?

Well, I took Friday off from work so that I could do my long run. Out of the three workouts I had scheduled, it was the one I deemed most important and if it meant extending my long weekend to make it happen, I was pretty OK with that.

Saturday I knew from the get-go would be a scheduled rest day. And yes I rested in the sense that I didn't work out, but I was on my feet for a solid seven or eight hours in flip flops, which in the heat caused my ankles to swell like a pregnant lady's. Even though I iced the crap out of them when I got home, I knew there was absolutely no way I'd be able to run on Sunday.

So I skipped my three-mile easy run.

Monday, I was hopeful I'd be able to fit in my 8 miles of hills before the start of the softball tournament. But since our team lost it's first game on Sunday, we got stuck with the early game on Monday morning instead of the noon game, which left no time to run before hand. So yet another workout was lost to Labor Day weekend craziness.

At the end of the day, I'm not actually that upset about the skipped workouts. I know during a training cycle it happens. A few missed workouts here or there will not derail everything. There's still a solid seven and a half weeks until race day, which is more than enough time to make sure I'm good to go!