my weekend in words

Hey hey friends!  I tried to post this up last night but my computer was being a total turd nugget so it goin up now.  Also, I promise some pics in the near future.  Once I wrote up the post I realized it was really long with lots of links to look at, so I figured it best to give the pics their own post - theres some high quality images that obviously need their own.  So lets get to it,  I had a pretty eventful weekend – shocking I know,  so there’s lots to talk about!

Saturday I had the Walker Methodist 5k at Lake Harriet in MPLS.  The race was at 9:05am - which is late for a morning start, and it was supposed to be around 90 degrees that day.  We got the race at 8:15 so I could get my bib number and shirt.  Oh, backtrack to yesterday, per usual, I used this race as an excuse to buy new gear.  The tempo shorts were still on sale so I picked up another pair along with a tank since it was supposed to be ungodly hot.

So we got to the race, and by that time it was already about 80 degrees.  I got my stuff together, set the Garmin and my ipod, and at 9:05 we were off.  The course was one big loop around Lake Harriett.  It was really pretty, the lake on one side, and ginormous mcmansions on the other side.  They were really cool to look at.  It was super hot running but I tried to keep my pace for as long as I could, and kept it under 8 for about 2 miles, then it started to go down.  I never let my pace drop to much, and still had some kick left for the finish so I tried my best to sprint it in.  I finished in 25:22 (26 min. slower than MedCity and my pace was 9 seconds slower as well), but I chalk it up to the heat.

 I did get 2^nd in my division and 24^th overall.  Goes to show how slow the numbers were if even I did that well.  I still had a fun time though, and was really happy that I didn’t completely bomb the race.  Afterwards I made myself look presentable – aka, spray copious amounts of dry shampoo in my nasty hair, and we went to my fav. bakery, Patisserie 46 and got some treats.  If your ever in the area, this is a place you MUST go, seriously………go now!  We took our time getting home, ate lunch at a local café in town, putzed around at home, and later we met my mom and Paul at an outdoor restaurant called Vino in the Valley for dinner.  This place is great, it always has good food, but it’s the atmosphere that I go out there for.  It was such a great way to spend the evening.

Sunday, I took a rest day from running and slept in.  J-Weezy went for  a bike ride with a buddy, and when he got back we got busy ;)…..with yard work……get out of the gutter sickos.  We had to tackle the other side of the fence project.  Am I the only one that feels like this is the project that never ends?  I had some major yard cleanup to get done so I trimmed bushes, pulled an obscene amount of weeds, and pretended I was Martha Stewart  and spray painted these metal bins (found in our dungeon of a basement), and used them as planters.  I just love them!  I have 2 more bins that I think I will do the same thing to, I just love the way they turned out.  Talk about a cheap project.  By the time we got done with everything it was about 6pm so we grilled up some grub, played with the dog, and called it a night!

So keeping with the trend, I wrote up a new training plan, a few changes though.  My last one, I felt like my legs were just dragging the whole time, and I felt pretty sluggish, so hopefully this will work better.  I have another race on the 24^th in Hayward, WI .  Jake is doing a 100K mtn. bike race that Saturday up there, and there just happens to be a 5k the next day so I figured it would perfect timing.  Maybe the top prize is a giant musky - fingers crossed!

So here’s the training plan to take me though till then.  As always, if anyone knows better (cause I sure as heck don’t), let me know.

Sunday - rest
Monday - 4.5 miles - no pace 6.3 miles! I felt so good I kept going, just call me Forrest :)
Tuesday - 50 minute training pace
Wednesday - strength & core
Thursday - 45 minutes training pace
Friday - 3.5 race pace & strength/core
Saturday - speed : 4-6 600's @ 7:15 pace
Sunday - rest/walk
Monday - 55 min. no pace
Tuesday - 45 min. training pace
Wednesday - strength & core
Thursday - 60 min. training pace
Friday - 4 mi. race pace
Saturday - rest : Jakes bike race
Sunday - 5k race!


So there you have it, stay tuned for life changing pictures of everything I just talked about....lucky you