Let's Get Physical

I took a MUCH deserved rest day today.

The weekend started out harmlessly enough.  Since I had built both my weekly mileage and long run mileage last week, I was cutting back a bit last week to give myself a little break. Standard marathon practice.

Since my plan called for 13 this weekend and I was also planning to run a 5K, I opted to just split the run into the 5K and a 10-miler.  I didn't want to overdo anything.

On Friday, I decided that I knew myself well enough to know it'd be nearly impossible to get myself out of bed early on a Sunday to go run 10 miles alone.  So I decided to go on and knock it out.  I waited until about dinnertime so that I'd find a little relief from the heat and headed to the trail.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.  It's still pretty hot at 6pm.  I drank all my water and Gatorade as well as ate all of my sports beans.  I managed to keep about a 10-minute pace.  I'd like to be able to start going a little faster, but it's just not a piece of cake when it's 80+ degrees outside. I decided to just be pleased with logging the miles in a respectable time.  If I run the marathon with 10-minute miles, I'll still have a PR by like 12 minutes!  I would take that.

I don't normally take an ice bath after 10 miles, but my body is still adjusting to running more mileage on a regular basis.  Plus I was hot.  And I had a race in like 12 hours.  I took it easy the rest of the night and got to bed.

On Saturday, I did something I don't do very often.... I ran a 5K.  The Nashville Striders holds a picnic each summer, and part of the event is that members can run the 5K for free.  I'm all about free stuff so I couldn't really pass that up.  I quickly found out why the race is free - no one would run it if it weren't!

We went up the hills for like 2.5 miles.  We came down the hills for the last .6 miles.  I have NO idea how that happens.  It was tough.  And hot. (Are you sensing a theme?  I really don't like running in the heat.)  Nonetheless, I finished in 27:18.  While it's no PR, it IS an average 8:49 pace.  That's pretty swift for me.  Factor in the heat, hills, and 10 miles I put on my legs 12 hours before?  I didn't mind the time.

We of course hung around and enjoyed all the yummy picnic food that everyone had brought. (We love a good potluck here in the south!)

I had been contemplating hitting up the beach with some friends.  Before you freak out that I so casually mentioned going to the beach even though I live in landlocked Nashville, TN, let me fill you in.  We have a really big lake nearby.  And somewhere on it is a man-made beach. Unfortunately, the forecast looked very gloomy for the day, and I'm not a fan of sitting outside on a beach under clouds.  I'd already convinced myself I wasn't going when I heard from Danielle.

I ended up being invited to go whitewater rafting, something I'd been dying to do again for ages and ages.  Seriously, I was in high school the last time I went.  Since I'd already decided against the lake and since the forecast for the Ocoee River looked better than the one in Nashville, I decided to go.

I didn't regret the decision.  It's a 3-hour drive to get to the river, but the rafting part makes the 6-hour roundtrip drive soooooo worth it.  We had a super awesome guide who was able to get us to do some pretty cool things on some of the rapids.  We got soaked.  We laughed a ton.  We flipped out on one particularly challenging rapid.  I even rode the bull!  (This is where you sit on the very front of the boat and hold on to a rope and because of the rapids it's just like ride a bull.)  

When I woke up kind of sore this morning, I decided that whitewater rafting counts as cross training and made today a rest day.

It was a super fun weekend, and I wasn't surprised I slept 12 hours last night after all of that!