Oops, I ran a marathon.

It's been a busy week, but then again what week isn't!

I had to work ahead and bank my long workouts during the week, as Stace is going to TX with her sister to meet a friend and stay at some cushy resort in Houston. This means any big blocks of time I would normally be able to squeeze in over the weekend for training were out.

For the first time in a long time this week I had the feeling I was able to complete and mesh together family life, training, and work...all together with great effort. This is the greatest feeling when I don't have the sense I am leaving something on the table in one of these areas.

To accomplish this I had to do some really early morning training...

Tuesday -

Patting myself on the back, I took a rest day!

Wednesday -

I woke up at 3:30am and was on the trainer by 4am for my longest session yet at 3hr30. I made sure to wake up and stretch so I was not completely cold starting off. I took the first half hour as pretty much super easy spinning.,..and followed it with two hours of moderate effort at lower Zone 2 HR.

The last hour I crushed it and was able to push harder gearing and do some intervals to make the time go a little faster.

It wasn't terrible to be on the trainer for that long, I figure I have about 2 or 3 more of those max, before it's nice enough to be able to get outside. (as the schedule has the long rides every other week) I bought Mad Men - Season 1 at Target for $16 and watched the first 3 episodes, I love it. Great great writing and it kept me entertained enough to the point I was not watching the clock.

For the final Hour I watched Nine Inch Nails - "And All That Could Have Been" DVD. This is the most incredible DVD rock show I have ever seen. I have seen this DVD over 100 times. It's possible I have watched it close to 200 times. I have not watched it at all in the last 4 years and 3 months :) :)

I also have the cd version loaded into my iTunes and have listened to the show many times while on training runs for a marathon over the past 4 years. It was incredible to see it again...it's one of the few carry over things from my previous life that I still love. It was fun to see it while on the bike 3+hrs into a ride at 7am, opposed to watching it at 7am after not having gone to bed all night! The performance is from their tour in 2000, which I caught at Target Center, but remember very little:(

Thursday -

Another early bird training day, I walked into LTF Bloomington at 4am and did an hour of core, pushups and pullups...along with an easy 20 minute run. I followed with the 45 minute Spin Class and also added Core class after...it was a good effort.

Friday -

I wanted 20.

I felt good.

At 12 miles into my training run I was at 44th and Brookview about a mile from my parents house. I had started at LTF XT club and was on a new route. If I went straight to Excelsior Blvd and headed back to the club I was figuring I would only get about 16.

If I turned right I thought I could get down to Lake Harriet and hook back up to the path that leads to the club and get 22.

Wrong! I knew I had miscalculated as I started to hit 21 and 22 with where I was at.

How weird I hit precisely 26.2 miles exactly at the entrance to the club from the street.

I felt good at different moments during the run, but I also struggled at times. The final blow was the last mile: uphill into stiff wind! It was funny to get a training run sub 4hr marathon distance, after trying for 3 years to crack that same number unsuccessfully in races.

It was good to get the long run in, my first since AZ at end of January.