I'm Back in the Game!!

I recovered from Wednesday's funk and I am proud to report a few new records today: 8 mile run yesterday - longest run of my life, and 22 mile bike ride today - longest ride of my life. So yes, I am back in the game!!

Yesterday's run was pretty awesome. We did the downtown airport loop and it was my first time to run with the girls that I'm doing the half marathon with. Actually, one of the girls was sick and the other one got there after we did our first loop, so it was just the 2 of us for the first loop. I like it out at the airport because there are only a couple of small hills. The thing is, it is out in the middle of a huge open area, so the wind is pretty crazy. It's not bad on the first half of the loop (running north), but it's wicked crazy on the last half (coming back south). We ran the first 4 miles with only stopping once to walk and it was for just a couple minutes. I was also surprised to discover that I am capable of carrying on a conversation while I'm running. I've never been able to do that before, so that was cool.

We stopped at 4 miles to stretch and take a Hammer Gel shot. We also decided to grab our MP3 players for the last half of the run. We ended up taking 2 walking breaks during the last loop, which actually isn't bad considering it was the first 8 mile run for each of us. Both breaks were quick too. But that last mile was brutal. My knees were both killing me and it was taking every fiber in my body to keep going.

In the end, our average speed for the entire run was around 12 minute miles. Not the greatest, but we're also not seasoned runners, so I think we did pretty well. The most important part is that we FINISHED.

This morning I had tri practice and we had 15 miles on the schedule. I was really hoping it wasn't as bad as the 15 miles we did 2 weeks ago - that route was so hilly, it was just awful!! Well, I got to practice and found out that we were actually doing 20 miles instead of 15. Well, I'm not sure who measured the route, but it ended up being 22 miles (2 loops of just over 11 miles). There were only 2 hills that were really tough. The rest were do-able. I told our coaches at the end that I would much rather do this 22 miler than the mountainous 15 from a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, I put my body through a lot in a period of about 18 hours, so the rest of the weekend is for recovery. I'm headed out to the soccer field in a bit for the Wizards home opener (Randy is already there tailgating) so I can hang out with some friends. No drinking for me though. I just can't handle it anymore during training.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Here are my workout stats for the past 3 days:

Thursday, March19, 2009: muscle conditioning

Friday, March 20, 2009: yoga, 8 mile run

Saturday, March 21, 2009: 22 mile bike ride