All it takes is all you've got

Easy 9 around Countryside.  Legs felt tired from last week still, so I needed the slow recovery run today.  Last week was the biggest week of my life, come to think of it.  I never ran over 55 miles in a week in college or after.  Having completed 60 miles two weeks ago 65 miles last week, I'm paving new territory here.  And I feel pretty good!  A little tired, but no severe aches or pains.  Thank goodness!  I think I'll go back down to 60 this week and see if I can hit 65 again next week before I start my taper for TOU.

Went to bed pretty early last night but Ali kept waking up and moaning in her bed.  She's been teething, I think.  So my sleep was pretty disrupted, but at least I was in bed for 8 hours.

I was going to try and do some intervals today but after a few miles my legs still didn't feel quite ready, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.  I just didn't want to try and push it hard before my legs are ready.  I think they appreciated more long slow miles.

10.5 miles on big dry creek trail 7:39 ave. 

2 mile warm up

Stretching and 4 strides 

10X800M at the track with 200M jog in between each

2:50, 2:51, 2:53, 2:52, 2:53, 2:51, 2:47, 2:51, 2:52, 2:44

The first 5 were actually the hardest because I was pretty daunted by the idea of doing 10.   Once I passed half way I started feeling better and just taking them one at a time.  I took my fuel belt with water and gatorade so I didn't die of thirst.

2 mile cool down 

Tired legs from yesterday.  It took me about 5 miles to finally loosen up a bit.  Thank goodness I have my pilates reformer class today.  Aaron is watching the kids tonight so I can go pick out some new training shoes with my gift certificate from the race last week.  Maybe I'll go get a massage while I'm out too. 

Aaron took our 5 year old, Abe with him to look at houses yesterday.  They looked at 23 houses, 5 of which are homes we already own that are in rehab mode.  The other 18 are bank owned houses that are going up for bid at the Denver County Auction this morning, so Aaron wanted to check them out to get a better idea of what he is willing to bid on them.  Abe came home and told me how fun it was to go to work with his Dad.  He told me how usually the lock boxes are on the front door handle, but sometimes they are hidden on a pipe on the side of the house and it is like a treasure hunt to find them.  And one time there was no lock box, so Aaron lifted him through a half-open window and he went in and climbed up on the couch and unlocked the safety lock to let Aaron in. Abe totally loved the private detective role he got to play...although it just occurred to me how unsafe that may have been.  I think I ought to have a talk with Aaron.  I guess it is pretty easy to tell which houses are vacant and which are not...but still....sending your 5 year old into a "vacant" house that may or may not have scavengers living in the basement?  Aaron did tell me that he made Abe stay in the car when he came upon an occupied property and had to talk to the tenants.  I'm glad Abe is learning all about how to become a Real-Estate Investor.  He is really good with numbers already and obviously has is Dad's entrepreneurial personality. (He likes to do things his own way, is very strong-willed, creative, and passionate.)   I think our college savings plan for him should be to help him buy his own rental property and teach him all the details of rehabbing it, renting or selling it and how to maxmize his cash flow.  If we can help him manage his finances in a way that he can eventually own a couple properties outright, he'll have no problem paying for his tuition.  Of course, if he is really like his Dad, he'll probably get too wrapped up in doing his own business and not even finish college.  

Another easy run today.  My body warmed up after 2 miles instead of 5.  Another day of sleep and recovery always helps.  Not to mention the deep tissue massage I received last night.  ahhhhhhhh.

9 miles, 7:26 ave.

Lifted weights for 45 minutes this morning, then took a nap after lunch.  

Abe starts Kindergarten on Monday so he had his "testing" today to see where is is reading.  He was pretty shy at first; didn't want to be left alone with his teacher.  But he finally warmed up to her after a bribe that I would take him to the bouncy castle if he answered Mrs. Fuente's questions. Mrs. Fuentes said she was very impressed with how smart he is and excited to have him in her class.  Go ABE!

Pretty easy run.  Averaged 7:26.  I got bored in the middle, so I threw in a marathon pace mile to see if I actually even know what 6:20 feels like since I've been racing and doing intervals at 6:00 or under pace and most of my other running is 7:30-8:00 pace.  So I did a couple of strides to quicken the pace and then ran mile 8 of my 14-miler in 6:19.  Felt pretty comfortable.  We'll se how comfortable that feels after 20 consecutive...its not likely to be at all comfortable after the first few but I'm up for the challenge.  Maybe I'll do a longer tempo run at 6:20 pace next week to get a better feel for the pace.

Next week I'm going to do one more "long run" (22 miles), probably on Tuesday.  Then I'll cut back the rest of the week to taper for a fast 5K in Denver Saturday night.  My friends talked Aaron and I into doing the Skirt Chaser 5K with them (it didn't take much convincing, as you may imagine).  The race is put on by Nicole DeBoom, elite triathlete and owner of Skirt Sports in Boulder and the rules are that Women start 3 minutes before the men and the over-all winner gets $500.  I think 3 minutes is favoring the women, but I guess Nicole DeBoom's goal with the race is to empower women and she obviously hopes that there is a female winner in all the Skirt Chaser races she holds around the country.  Women get a running skirt instead of a race tee with our entry.  Men get a tee advertising Skirt Sports.  Honestly, I don't know that I will ever wear my running skirt, but I'll see how comfy it is, I guess.  Anyone else love running skirts?  

I am excited that Aaron is doing the 5K with me even though he hasn't been running much lately AND he has the major disadvantage starting 3 minutes behind me.  We considered the idea of him wearing a long wig and me wearing a Baseball Cap with my hair tucked in and letting him start with the women and me start with the men to see if I could catch him, but then we vetoed that idea when we learned that there is prize money for the overall winner.  So I think he's hoping to come in no more than 6 minutes behind me (3 minutes with the conversion).  When we were engaged and newly wed Aaron used to run with me a lot and he was in GREAT shape.  He once ran a sub 39 minute 10K!  He likes to brag that he HAS actually beat me ONCE in a running race.  It was a downhill mile a few years ago.  We trained at the track together to prepare and on race day he ran 4:46 and I ran 4:55.  I claim that I had a major disadvantage because the race was VERY downhill and he had 200 lbs of weight pushing him down the hill while I only had 120 lbs, in addition, his legs are AT LEAST twice as long as mine, so I had to take two strides for every one of his strides (tounge in cheek).  Those theories could be debated obviously but I'm sticking to 'em.  By the way, Aaron HAS beat me in countless triathlons, so he still has plenty of pride in tact.  I am pretty horrible at swimming and not much better at biking, while he is very well balanced in his swim, bike, run abilities.