Weekend Roundup

Amazingly, our weekend consisted mainly of:

• running
• working

I know, I know, you don't believe me. And I can't blame you since, I'm sure, you expected me to write something more along the lines of:

• drinking
• partying
• partying and drinking

But this was one of those rare weeks where we were really busy and were just happy to get our runs in. I was on midnight-8am shifts on Saturday and Sunday morning, so my nights and days were pretty much shot. On Friday, as Leah mentioned, we woke up around 7am and left Bloomington for Chicago, getting home around 1 or 2. We then went for our 5 mile recovery run and then Leah went to meet up with Lisa and Evin and I was left to my own devices. This was supposed to consist mostly of sleeping and...sleeping, but our little kitty Dagny had other ideas. She was more in a passive-agressive violence-through-nuzzling type of sleep thwarting mood and made sure that I didn't get to sleep for more than maybe a half hour. Awesome. Well, whatever, off to work I go.

I got home around 9 and, having been mostly up for over 24 hours, crashed pretty hard and didn't wake up until after 6. The most amazing thing? While I was asleep, the apartment cleaned and packed itself. I've got to sleep during the day more often.

Okay, time to run. We were out the door at around 7 for a beautiful dusk run, 8 miles with 8x100 strides. The run went extremely well although it was a bit misty and slippery. Luckily, I handle corners like a dream and come equipped with traction control. The run went by really quickly and we both felt pretty good. This set of strides was the first in a long time that my legs didn't feel really heavy. So, instead of being 30 feet behind Leah during each sprint, I was only, like, 10! (she's fast)

Okay, run done, off to work for me. Work work work, home at 9 am. Scare the crap out of Leah when I walk into the bedroom just as she's waking up. She has a minor heart attack, but I'm too tired for CPR. Luckily, she pulled through. Despite her brush with death, Leah was still plucky enough to make a big breakfast and it was rather delicious (we switched to eggs that weren't harvested by Satan, and they're much tastier. I recommend the cage-free eggs). Hunger sated, it was off the bed for me. I slept for a bit and then dragged myself out of bed at 6 (actually, Leah woke me up by jumping up and down on the bed yelling "wake up, I'm bored! Entertain me!!" I guess it's time to get up.

We were set for a 14 mile run yesterday, which was about as far as I'd want to run starting at 7pm. It's always harder to run far in the evening, it just seems longer somehow. Still, the run went pretty well. We ran south from the totem pole to Grant Park along the lakefront path and we both agreed that Garmin must be confused, because clearly we were running faster than 9:15 miles. Not that I mind that pace, I just felt that I was running my-tee fast and Leah agreed. Alas, we were likely faster than technology and the Garmin was just trying to catch up. We made it to the 9 miles marker, GU'd up, and turned around.

And there's the wind. Lots of it.

Running into the wind is hard. We mostly maintained our pace but it did slow us down some. The real effect of the increased resistence was an increase in effort and an increase in aches and pains. Leah's knee started acting up, likely a residual soreness from hill-running in Bloomington. The wind never helps with knee problems. Also, she started getting a rumbly in her tumbly and that's never fun. Still, she kept her spirits up and finished very strong. Our last mile was the fastest, just the way we like it.

Over all, our pace on the long run was around 9:30, which is in the dead center of our long run range. I'm certainly pleased with the effort this weekend and now comes the challenge. We are entering our highest mileage week ever AND we're moving AND we both have tons of work to do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go sacrafice a chicken to the God of Time Management.

(technically, it'll be a chicken egg, and the sacrifice will be nestled in some tuna, two slices of bread, and some cheese. And it'll be all melty and delicious)