Busy Labor Day Weekend

Alright, so it was again a busy weekend and I didn’t get the free time that I would’ve liked but oh well.

Friday

A friend of mine had a birthday on Thursday so since I was working I told her Friday I’d take her out since I was running on Saturday anyway, she could drink and I’d drive her around…another friend of ours she hadn’t seen in a while since he works early in the morning (3:30 am) most days so I had him come over to my place and hang out for a bit with us, he even brought his guitar and played and sang for us before we went out, then he went to sleep at my place since it was closer for him to drive to work from there anyway and we went out and met a couple other friends of mine for a few drinks and just to hang out. We were all kind of tired and called it a night around midnight.

Saturday

Long run of 20 miles planned. I got up around 9 and had breakfast of 2 nutrigrain egos and a scrambled eggbeater with cheese and some water. I headed out for the run with a fuel belt of 1 bottle of water and 2 of powerade (I could’ve find my 4th bottle) around 10:15 and decided to run to my office and back…about 8 ½ miles on other trips I’ve taken, but I went a slightly different route and it was at a little over 9 when I got to the place to turn into the grounds, I went down around the office and around the little island that is in our pond and then back which had me at 10 miles to head home…it was a bit warm but not too bad, and at this point I finally ate one of my fruit leathers I had with, this should’ve told me something…I was heading back and not feeling quite as good as I had been on the way there…I got close to my house and hit the 18.5 mile mark and was so thirsty I couldn’t even consider going on without some water and with my house right there, I just didn’t want to stop and drink and head back out, so I bagged the run at 18.5 and realized I definitely need more than the breakfast and one fruit leather to make it 20 miles and 14 ounces of powerade and 7 ounces of water are not enough to drink when you are out in somewhat warm weather (70s) for a 20 mile run…gee, wonder why it didn’t feel so great. But I did manage to average a 9:11 pace, not quite what I wanted (was shooting to negative split running at marathon pace at least the last 8 miles) but was good I guess all things considered.

Mile 1: 9:07
Mile 2: 9:08
Mile 3: 9:09
Mile 4: 9:10
Mile 5: 8:58
Mile 6: 8:53
Mile 7: 8:44
Mile 8: 8:10
Mile 9: 8:57
Mile 10: 9:09
Mile 11: 9:02
Mile 12: 9:19
Mile 13: 9:35
Mile 14: 9:14
Mile 15: 9:19
Mile 16: 9:33
Mile 17: 9:46
Mile 18: 9:38
Mile 18.5: 5:23

After the run I took a nap and vegged most of the rest of the afternoon till friends came over and we went out and I drank about 2 too many cocktails that night.

Sunday

Got up and recovered enough to head to my friends for her son’s first birthday party. With myself, her, her parents, her husband, her two kids, 2 friends of theirs and their 2 kids and then all of her husband’s brothers and sister-in-laws (3 of each) and their kids and his parents (each couple has 3 kids I believe except the one with 5) there were about 9 kids under the age of 5 there and just too many people!! We had good pizza and cake though and then I headed home and had a friend come over as I was going to grill t-bones, we had that baked potatoes and asparagus and then later some angel food cake and cookies and cream ice cream I had around the house…yummy dinner. And my friend works at the farmer’s market and had been working that morning and brought me the most gorgeous bouquet of 2 dozen roses…I love flowers…particularly roses…we ended up watching a movie and crashing a little early as I was tired from the night before and he had to get up early.

Monday

Got up and did a little cleaning even though it was finally a nice day and the sun was out I spent a good part of the morning inside. I finally went for a run around noon of 5 miles and the legs finally seemed to shake off the heaviness they had been feeling and I got an average pace of 8:30 so not too bad. Got home and a friend had called, the one that works at the farmer’s market, he had left stuff at my place and was going to pick it up and asked if I wanted him to bring me some corn from the market for dinner, which sounded good so he did and I also made some baby potatoes I had left over from the market that I put in the oven with fresh basil and oregano and threw some chicken breasts on the grill….we ate and then a friend came over and the three of us and her dog went for a walk around Lake Calhoun, after which we went back to my place, she went home and he and I watched some TV and crashed early since I had to get up…

Tuesday

Catch up day at work, so much going on it seems…ughh…I had planned my interval workout of 5 or 6 x 1 mile repeats with half mile recovery yesterday, didn’t go in the morning as I was tired and just didn’t feel like doing it yesterday afternoon, so instead of did the 8 mile tempo run I had planned for Thursday and cut it down to 7 miles…plan had been for 6 miles at 8:00 pace, well I managed to average an 8:17 and got close to 8 minute miles for 5 so I called it good. I’m trying to relax the legs a bit this week with my half now just a week away….

Mile 1: 8:53 warm up
Mile 2: 8:09
Mile 3: 7:54
Mile 4: 8:05
Mile 5: 8:03
Mile 6: 8:05
Mile 7: 8:53 cool down

So busy weekend and now I really need to get to doing some work too!! One nice thing about yesterday though, I had come home to find a bag of snack size Hershey bars in my fridge and a 1/2 pound bar on my pillow...I am going to get so fat, but I love that I was thought of and given such a nice treat. I love surprises like that.