One of the Busiest Weekends of My Life

I put my sore muscles to the test this weekend...and they are finally feeling better. BUT....now I have a case of "runners knees." :\ Basically, I'm just going to try to focus on swimming & cycling this week to give my knees a rest.

Friday I went to see Dr Walden at Quest again. He worked on me, focusing on my hamstring and calf that have been giving me trouble. That night Rylie and I went for almost an hour walk. That really helped loosen me up.

Saturday morning I had tri practice at 6:30am all the way over on the Kansas side. This entailed leaving the house around 5:40am. Nice. I was still a little sore, so I was worried about how I would hold up, but the nice thing is that we cycled before we ran so that really helped to loosen up the sore muscles. We cycled 22 miles. The first 11 were into the wind with a LOT of hills. I felt a little dehydrated and like I was running out of gas near the end. I had never been so glad to get to a fuel station before in my life. I drank up some Gatorate and ate a Hammer Gel and set off for the last 11 miles. With the wind to our backs, it literally felt like the last leg of the bike took about half as long as the first!

After I got my bike racked up, I grabbed a quick Gatorade and headed out for my short 5k run. Mind you this was my first run since the half marathon 6 days prior. My muscles still ached and my knees basically shouted "I HATE YOU" at me the entire time. I still finished it, but at a very slow pace and with very painful knees. I definitely have some IT band issues. :\

After practice, my team mate and I went back to her house to get cleaned up and then headed out to the Kansas Speedway to do some fundraising. We were out there walking around until 3pm. After that, I drove home and then took Rylie shopping for new clothes for her and Harper. I didn't get home until about 6pm. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I could barely stay awake long enough to eat dinner. I went to bed around 8pm and was out before 9:00.

Sunday I was up bright and early again for the Trolley Run. It was a beautiful day out. In fact, it got a little hot during the race. My knees still ached, so it was definitely a slow race for me and Kristen. She was having some foot pain too, so we just took it easy. We even stopped a couple times to stretch and whatnot. I got a knee band that helped my right knee quite a bit, but my left was really suffering. We finished the 4 mile race in 49:32. LOL, pathetic, I know. But hey, we're still recovering from our HM. And yeah, my knees really need a break from running for a little while.

After the race, there was an after party on the plaza with the HOOK UP of food!! Seriously, it was awesome!!! Coffee, rolls, bananas, apple slices, Red Bull, an AE truck was there with all kinds of milk/chocolate milk, juice, yogurt, there was Papa John's pizza, popcorn, cookies, you name it!!! I was all over that free food!! :) It's the whole reason for running a race, right? ;)

After the party, I headed home and took a 15 minute ice bath. The first few minutes were miserable, but after that I got used to it and was really glad I did it because today my knees hurt a little, but my hamstring and calf are pretty much back to normal - thank goodness!!! Now...just need to nurse these knees.

Yesterday Rylie had a dance recital at the mall. She was so cute! I need to post some pics. I also need to post some pics of the race. *Note to self* It was an exhausting weekend, but I feel quite accomplished. Oh, and Rylie and I decided to run a 5k together on Mothers' Day - I'm excited! It will be our first race together, so what better day than Mothers' Day?

I hope everyone had a good weekend and I can't wait to read some race reports!!!

Friday, April 24, 2009: 50 min walk

Saturday, April 25, 2009: 22 mile bike, 3.1 mile run

Sunday, April 26, 2009: 4 mile run