It's official... I've clearly lost my mind.

First off, my apologies. I have been a shitty blogger for the past month. October was nuts... work deadlines, the Bourbon Chase, a spontaneous Chicago trip and a trip to Tuscaloosa in which I don't think I'd ever tailgated in such windy, freezing temperatures. Pictures for proof:

I am standing inside our shanty. Basically, we rolled into Tuscaloosa around 11am and the sun was shining. We put up our tent... got everything out of the car and ready and as soon as we sat down the sun went away and in it's place was a 35 mph north wind. We spent the next 4 hours adding anything and everything that we could find in my car to try and block the wind. Which is why our tent looks like a circus of rednecks got hit by a tornado. We fashioned "walls" with plastic ponchos and fastened them together with safety pins, badminton net stakes, and duct tape (all of which I had lying around in my car).

You're thinking... wow, Amy's put on some weight. And while I did put on like 5 pounds in October (don't worry, I've already lost it! hooray!), I look like the Michelin man because I seriously had on 16 layers of clothing. Two long sleeves shirts (one being an underarmour shirt), one short sleeve Carolina shirt (that no one ever saw), a fleece jacket and an offensively yellow rain coat. I couldn't move. But, I wasn't the only one in our crew who was bundled up.
Notice the use of duct tape to hold the "walls" together. Have you ever had to get into your car in the middle of a tailgate to warm up, so that you could drink a beer? I swear, I would have never made it at a Big 10 school.

This is obviously before the eventual loss to Alabama that we would endure in about 6 hours, here we were still optimistic dumbasses who thought we might actually beat the #2 team in the country:
So, anyway... October was busy. And it wasn't busy with running. I only managed to run 153 miles in October. My lightest month the ENTIRE YEAR. But guess what? I'm back now, bitches. Operation Hardcore Amy is in full effect. Here is what you can be expecting from me in the coming months...

November 22-- Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon (WhatwasIthinking???OMG)

December 12-- Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, AL

January 17-- Swampstomper 50k (OMGThereisnowayImgoingtosurvivethis)

And... by Jan 28th (the kickoff of my 30th birthday extravaganza in New Orleans) I will be 30 pounds lighter than I am right now.

DAMN. Just putting all that in writing is intimidating.

Up until this weekend, I was confident about all this. Last Monday marked my return to hardcore Amy and I was feeling good, I logged over 50 miles for the week, I got in some strength training that I hadn't done in months. And then I ran 16 miles out at Percy Warner Park this weekend... I walked a 4.5 mile trail on Sunday... And then I got into work this morning and I read the mile by mile description of the Monkey Marathon and now I'm completely FREAKING OUT.

Like, WTF was I thinking? Who do I think I am? First of all... Hills kick my ass. Which means the Monkey... is going to hurt. Badly. I may roll up to Thanksgiving dinner in a wheelchair, for heaven's sake. And then... a few weeks later... I'm running ANOTHER marathon (which, I originally wanted to PR in. Now, I'm not sure I'm ready for that attempt).

And then... my craziest idea yet... running a 50k in January. And not just a 50k, but a TRAIL 50k. I mean... yeah, that sounds reasonable... a trail half marathon back in May left me a bleeding, crying, exhausted, hot mess... I'm sure 31 miles on a trail will be easy.

For once in my running life... I'm actually intimidated. Usually, I'm too dumb naive to be intimidated, but, this time... I'm freaking out. And my only hope is the fact that I'm freaking out, will just cause me to train harder and be as prepared as possible. My plan is map out my runs and strength training at the beginning of each week. Having a set plan seems to make me work a little harder, than just running for the sake of running. Aside from running and strenth training (particularly core work), I'm also going to spend as much time on the trails as possible. Whether it's running or hiking. I feel like the more time my feet, eyes, and brain have on the trails, the better I'll be in January.

So, keep me on task people... I'm going to need your help, support, and good mojo for the upcoming months. It's not going to be easy... but I have a feeling it will be worth it.