Drama, Rest, Run, Rest

The past three or four days have been a mixed bag.  Let me start on Friday and work my way forward from there.

Friday was a good day, I got in a brief but solid swim at HealthQuest.  It was only about 1,250M, but I really felt like I swam better than I have recently.  One of the bright spots from my time in the water was that I decided to see how fast I could do back to back 100M at the end of my work out.  So after swimming 1,000M, I rested for a minute and then pushed off, hoping to swim fast.....and surprisingly I did (for me that is).  I did back to back 1:50 100Ms (this equates to 1:40/100 yd).  I was psyched!  I left the pool very happy and ready to start the day.

Once at work I found out that the milk I poured into my cereal was bad.  I was a bit pissed off.  I then made a conscious decision that I wasn't going to let a little thing like sour milk turn my day into a "bad" day.  Then around 8:15AM I received a call from my boss....he officially resigned the night before.  This was an absolute bombshell for me.  To explain, he is the man who had hired me nine-plus years ago.  I was pretty much looking for my first "adult" job (had completed my MBA six months earlier) and he took a chance on me.  I hadn't worked for him the entire nine years I have been at my company, but just six months ago, due to an organizational change, I was not reporting to him again.  To say that my head was spinning would be an understatement.  I was totally lost all day.

At lunch I went out for a run with Chris and Bill, I had to get out and just talk, talk about anything and everything.  We didn't go terribly fast, but it didn't matter to me, I just needed to get out and clear my mind and not sit at my desk and dwell on the days events.  We ended up doing 5.15 miles in 41:28 (8:03/mile), again not fast but fast enough to feel better about everything once I got back to my desk.

Saturday was a rest day for me.  I had my running clubs half marathon the next day and I just wanted to take it easy....and that is exactly what I did.  Oh, I did do something significant on Saturday, I ordered an Apple iPod Touch.  My iPod Nano is really hurting, the battery life is horrible and I think it is a 1st Gen.  I thought it was time for an upgrade.  It is scheduled to arrive today, I am very excited!!!  Now all I have to do is get a waterproof case for it and I will be all set.

Ah, now for Sunday....it was a beautiful and sunny day for the most part.  I was feeling OK, not great, but OK.  I made my way down to Tyler State Park a little earlier than usual because there word on the street was that parking was going to be a little rough due to all of the snow.  I ended up parking at one of the upper lots and ran down to the boat house (a nice 1.25 mile warm-up).  About 15 minutes from the start of the race we were informed that it was going to be a 12.6 mile race and that the course had been modified because of all of the snow that we had received.  It was going to be three 4.2 mile loops and a good portion of the course still had some snow on it.  In fact we would later find out that there was a portion about a quarter mile long that was three inches deep in snow and was like running in sand.  I resigned myself to just running a solid race and not to expect to run a PR.  I finised the race in 1:36:55 (7:41/mile), a time that is slower than I would have expected but still good considering the conditions.

Oh, I almost forgot, I wasn't able to get a ride back up to my car after the race, so I had a nice uphill 1.25 mile run to my car, which brought my total mileage run for the day up to 15.1 miles.  Dang!  That is a lot for me so early in the season.

I spent the rest of Sunday laying around the house as I was exhausted.  But since it was Valentine's Day, me and the family went out for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants....Ted's!  It was a bison burger for me, and I felt I earned it.  Such a good way to end the night.

Monday was a holiday and I decided that I would be resting.  No running, biking or swimming.  Well, there was some physical activity to be had....me, my wife and the girls went bowling.  That's right, bowling.  It was the third or fourth time that my 7 year old has gone, but the first for my 4 year old.  My wife and I had a lot of fun watching the girls bowl, especially my little one who would stand legs apart and push that six pound ball as hard as she could down the alley.  It was classic.  Funny thing was, I think she beat her older sister the first game.  Ahem, I should note that I bowled a 170, which included a stretch where I threw five straight strikes...OH YEAH!

Now for today, I put in an easy 1,500M at the pool, 400M warm up, then 4 x 100, then 500 straight and a 200M cool down.  I ran a little more than four miles at lunch with Chris.  It was a bit quicker than I would have liked but that isn't always a bad thing.....my legs are still a bit sore from Sunday.  Adios!