Soccer, Bike, Strawberries, Run

It is Monday and I'm not really all that bummed about it.  Granted I would much rather be home not having to work today, but the weekend was good and I am OK with coming into the office today.  I think that it has something to do with having a short week (I am taking off on Friday) and having a longggg weekend coming up (yes, 4 day weekends deserve a few extra "g's"). 

Recapping the past three days or so, I would say that it was a good weekend, nothing spectacular, but just good.  There were some bright spots (my daughters last soccer game on Saturday) and some not so bright spots (rain, rain, rain).  Here is what went on:

Friday
Up early and in the pool by 5:15AM.  I shared a lane with the only guy I have met at the gym thus far, Peter, an uber-good age group triathlete who just won his age group at the Florida 70.3 a week ago.  I had a funky workout on my schedule, 300M warm-up, 8 x 50 drills, 16 x 25M @ 10 sec, 1 x 400M @ 60 sec, 16 x 25M @ 10 sec, 8 x 50 drills, 200M cool down.  I initially thought that having to do 32 25Ms would be tough but they weren't bad.  I actually was able to really keep my form for them and realized that swimming hard doesn't mean swimming fast.  Keeping my body relaxed actually helped me go a bit faster.  A good morning overall.

The rest of the day was work, work, work.  I did manage to get home and get the girls by 4:45PM after a few stops to get prepared for dinner...hamburgers and home made french fries (yes, I own a small fryer...so unhealthy, but so good!).  I managed to get the lawn cut as well which was a good call on my part because the weekend was supposed to be pretty wet.

I did slack a bit; I was supposed to get on the bike for 30 minutes, but I just couldn't find the time to.  By the time my wife got home, I needed to start making dinner, then after dinner I was in no shape to ride a bike, so I cut the lawn.  Next thing I knew it was 8:30PM and we were getting the girls in bed and I just didn't want to have to swap out the wheels on my bike and then set it up in the basement on the trainer.  I know, such a weak excuse.

Saturday

We were all up pretty early, everyone except for my little one that is, she slept until 7:45AM (Holy Cow!).  I was my oldests last soccer game of the season and we had to be out of the house by 8:40AM.  It was both a happy and sad day.  Happy because not more Tuesday night practices and Saturday AND Sunday games.  Sad because deep down I really do like coaching the girls and this would be the last time I would see most of them.  The game was a good one, I'm not even sure if we won or lost.  What was so good was that my girls actually PLAYED soccer.  There wasn't a swarm of little seven year old girls chasing after the ball, they we spread out and passing it to one another.  I was really proud of them.  Also, my daughter played phenomenal, she played fearlessly (taking the ball away from the other team), she played smart (passing to her teammates), and scored two goals (almost had two more).  I was definitely the proudest parent there, and not because of the goals. 

After the game my wife game me to "OK" to head home and go for my hour and a half ride (Yahoo!), while she took the girls to Target to use the gift cards my mother had given to them for Easter.  My ride was a good one, not especially fast (a lot of uphills) but definitely satisfying.  I basically rode north from my house all the way up to the southern shore of Lake Nockamixon (well, almost there).  I then turned around and headed home.  I think I managed to hit 40+ MPH a couple times on my ride, along with a few spots where I struggled to stay about 10 MPH.  I just love riding my bike, so much fun!  27 miles in 1:30 (18.0 MPH)

The rest of Saturday was spent doing family things.  First we went strawberry picking up at Hellericks Family Farm, then the rains came....the rest of the day/night was spent in the house.  After dinner and bathes, we all headed down to the basement to watch "Monsters vs. Aliens", where I promptly fell asleep for a solid 20 minutes with my little one lying on top of me.  It was a good way to end the day.

Sunday
I was really tired and didn't want to do my run early as I had planned.  God bless my wife for giving me a nudge to get me out the doorat 7:45AM  so that I would be done before church, otherwise I wouldn't have done it.  Now, I will say that the first mile I was cursing her for telling me to just get it done.  I felt horrible and my Garmin was showing me how horrible I was feeling...8:50/mile pace.  WTF?  I made the decision to just soldier on and get my hour run done so that I could get home and start the rest of my day. 

Slowly but surely I started to feel better, not great, but better.  My pace increase a bit and I felt like I would be able to make it at a bit faster pace than I initially thought.  My average pace displayed on my Garmin slowly started to drop, whew.  When it was all said and done I ran 7.2 miles in 1:00 (8:20/mile) HR 151 BPM. 

A quick shower, then off to church, then Dunkin' Donuts for the girls (and me....ah, I know I shouldn't have eaten the Boston Cream, but I love them so much), and then High Road Cycles to look at Oakley Jawbone sunglasses and bike racks.  I just love going to bike shops, I could spend all day in there just looking at bikes and all the things that go along with them.  They had some nice race wheels there and they were only $1,500 apiece....yeah right, "only". 

I could bore you with the rest of the day but nothing really happened except for some yard work, watching the girls play and then...oh yeah, the "LOST" finale, thus why I am tired this morning.  I liked it, although I am still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened. 

Time to get back to work and earn some money.  Rest day today and then back to training tomorrow, my step back week is behind me so it is time to mover forward with some extra training time this week.  Cheers!