the cut-back week

Time to play catch-up a little bit!

This past Saturday was kind of crazy. Rather than carpool with Meg I drove to Lake of the Woods alone so that I could skip the team breakfast and drive back to see the end of the 1st Annual BS Mini-Triathlon (more on that below). Even at 7:30am it was getting muggy. I was so relieved that it was a cut-back week, which meant that we had to run only 6 miles, rather than 8 like the week before or 10 like this coming Saturday. Shortly after 7:30 Meg and I took off down the trails, starting our 6-miler. We started out fast. I'd say we ran the first 3-4 miles faster than the last 2-3, rather than running a really steady pace. I think because I'd really slacked off last week, the run was particularly hard for me. I felt like I was pushing through every step of it. We finished in 52 minutes, which seemed reasonable. That's a pace that will get us to the finish line in under 2 hours, which is the goal.

So after we cooled down and stretched a bit I headed back to Champaign for the end of the 1st Annual BS Mini-Triathlon. This triathlon was hosted by my friend Sarah and her friend Ben, who she often runs with. They decided to host a non-competitive, friendly event just for fun. It consisted of a 20-minute swim, a 7 (or 10, I forget) mile bike ride, and a 5k run. As something to do, Brendan and Mary Kay went to that in the morning. Brendan participated in the swimming portion. I thought I would get there in time to see the last of the events, but I didn't. I did get there in time for the cookout though, which was quite tasty. :)

Sunday of course I didn't run or work out. Monday (yesterday) I was to do a 20 minute run, which I did in the rain. I didn't run easy, I kept up a decent pace. The rain varied from a sprinkle to pouring. Aside from a slight concern that my mascara was running all over the place (it all washed off) I had a great time. Just listening to my mp3 player, running in the rain. Then I got a shower and we went to the Tapas bar at Radio Maria for dinner with Mary Kay. I'd never been to the tapas side; I thought it was quite good. I particularly loved the flat bread and the goat cheese.

Today was a cross-training day, so Brendan and I headed to the gym after work. I did about 20 minutes on the elliptical, then decided I'd try this "deadlifting" thing all my weight-lifting friends seem to be into these days. Brendan has done it a bit, so he showed me how. As a point of reference, our friend Lynn can deadlift 303 lb. (she's a state record holder, I believe). Lynn's husband can lift over 500 lb. Brendan can lift about 230 (he just started). I lifted only about 105 lb. today, which was really pretty easy. I decided not to figure out what my max was, since I have a track workout tomorrow and really don't want to hurt that much! So I did some bicep curls and shoulder stuff before we headed home. It was a nice workout--a change from running, kind of fun.