Saturday's workout (scheduled for 12 miles w/ 4 at marathon pace) I planned to flip-flop with Sunday (30 minutes easy with 6 x 100 sprints) because I had to make the long trek to Candor. I stayed at camp w/ Scott and the boys but when Saturday dawned, my body was still very achy. Add to that the fact that I was eager to get on the road and, well, I just decided to shower and get on the road. I made good time, got to make some stops along the way to shops and a farmer's market I've always wanted to visit... and got to Candor by 3PM. I decided to stop "down town" and do my work out. My parents happened to be in town anyway at the church cleaning up from a service so I went there, said hello, changed into my running clothes and hit the pavement, literally taking a jog down memory lane. Candor has a great, mostly flat, not-quite-2-mile loop "around town" that was perfect for a decent chunk of my 30 minutes easy. Hello, Park Drive. Hello, Maple Grove Cemetery. Hello, ice cream store. Hello, Catatonk Creek and upper dam... The memories of high school track continued as I looped around the school property. Almost every track practice from 7th grade to senior year began with a warm up "perimeter". Finished up with my 6 x 100's on the track which, I like to remind the kids, was not even a DREAM for us tracksters back in the day. (The port-o-potty on site is fully functional, FYI)... I jogged back to the church parking lot and felt relaxed and without guilt from skipping the workout. Win!
Sunday morning I got up at 6AM to do the 12 miles. It was not the easiest thing hopping out of bed. My sister, Heidi, my mom and I had gone out for a drink after the Candor Community Chorus' annual July 4th concert the night before. It was just one drink but the thing that hit harder was the hour I went to bed: around midnight. PLUS, my chatty (in the best way) sister and I shared a VERY comfy, schmancy hotel-worthy bed... it was challenging, at best, to drag my arse out of it! But, drag my arse I did! I ran down my parents' dirt road (VERY steep) into town and took a right. I decided it would be simplest to just do 6 miles out and back. I did the first 2 miles as warm up and wanted to get the marathon pace miles over with on the first half of the trip. What I didn't expect/remember were the pretty significant hills on the back roads that I chose. To make up for mile 3 of 4 "at pace" (which was necessarily [gasp, gasp] slow due to incline) I did another .5 miles at pace or a bit faster after I turned around. Because of the hills (the last 1.5 or so being plain old ridiculous!) my pace overall was pretty embarrassing, but I know it was a good workout and I am happy I got it in before the wedding hoopla began.
After church that morning, Heidi (who briefly considered getting up to do a couple of miles with me in the early AM) convinced me to do a "10, 9, 8" workout with her. (This is the continuing education portion of this post...) Heidi is a high school and cross country track coach. While she claims not to be a runner, she really is. Plus, she knows her stuff when it comes to training. "10, 9, 8" is a 6-minute workout in which you do 10 jumping jacks, 10 sit ups, and 10 push ups; then, 9 jumping jacks, 9 sit ups, and 9 push ups. You continue this until you get down to 1 of each. It's great and, as Heidi said, it's really just a way to trick yourself into do 55 push ups. We both did modified (with our knees down) push ups, but it was a good little workout on top of my run that morning. Plus Heidi claimed it would make our arms look totally cut at the wedding: Win!
The wedding was unbelievably amazing and I owe it an entire post, but I did learn another something about running (kind of) in its wake. I had a very good time and drank... ummmm... a bit. Not a ton, honestly, because I was very busy dancing and talking and generally making merry... but I definitely indulged beyond your average weekend. What I learned on Monday morning was that the recovery from a hard workout and recovery from a "hard party" are the same: chocolate milk, protein, stretching, nuun tablets... I didn't happen to have any Advil, but I think that would have been good, too. Sleep would have been even better, but I had to hit the road so it was not an option.
Today, Tuesday, I was scheduled to do a 20 minute warm up followed by 1 minute uphill "hard" x6 with the downhill each time as a recovery. Since I had saddled Scott with the boys all weekend and they were eager to get home last night, I couldn't and didn't want to do the "boys with Dad on Monday night" thing. So... improvise was called for. After dropping Tommy off at theater camp, I got Elliott started outside playing and ran around the back yard for 20 minutes. Then, since there are hills EVERYWHERE in these parts EXCEPT in my yard, I did 60-second "sprints" up and down the step of my deck. I took a jog around the house between each set for recovery. I know this is not the same as running up hill, but it turned out to be a good workout: my heart was humming right along! Finally, because I was so inspired by Heidi's "10, 9, 8" I went inside and did that. I changed the jumping jacks to lunges, though, since I was all set with cardio and I know lunges totally knock me out. (In a good way).
So, that's the scoop with various Tough Grrrrllll-ness for the past few days. Hope you are able to be a Tough Grrrrllll this week, too!
Finally, I leave you with the traditional Wedding Pyramid created by some of the best people I know. (What? You've never heard of the traditional Wedding Pyramid??? Yeah, pretty sure Heidi made it up on Friday at another wedding and brought it to us on Sunday. You gotta admit, though: good tradition!)
Great pyramid! I haven't got anything from them yet either, so at least I know it isn't just me :) I feel a little out of the loop with all of it. Why didn't they email us the official teams too? :( Maybe I am just whining, but we are supposed to be able to step in and they aren't telling us anything. Do you feel the same way?
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