Monday, July 7, 2008

A Recap of the Past Week

Now that I'm back in town it's time to catch everyone up on what has happened over the past week. Wendy and I went back to Virginia to visit my family and break the pregnancy news to them. Before we took off, we hit the Lake for a quick speed session as I wasn't sure what I'd be doing when we got to Virginia. The schedule called for the following intervals in meters (and pace) with 200 meter recoveries: 1200(5:41), 1000(5:39), 800(5:36), 600(5:31), 400(5:26), 200(5:21).
.76, 4:32.13, (5:59) 172 bpm
.13, 1:38.33, 144 bpm
.63, 3:31.95, (5:37), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.90, 151 bpm
.50, 2:50.47, (5:40), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.38 155 bpm
.38, 2:00.57 (5:17), 177 bpm
.13, 1:38.05 161 bpm
.25, 1:22.65 (5:24), 175 bpm
.13, 1:42.23 159 bpm
.13, 0:38.57 (5:01) 172 bpm
I was pretty close on most of the numbers. It was mid 80s out there which may have slowed me down a bit.

Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:15 pm, but it was delayed nearly 45 minutes. That sucked. Unfortunately for me, I can't sleep much on planes. I guess it's just too uncomfortable. I manage to get somewhere around 30-60 minutes combined sleep on the trip and was pretty wiped by the time we arrived and drove an hour to my parents house. We wanted to break the news to the family then, but some people were still sleeping. We had breakfast and talked for about an hour and gave up. We headed to bed for a couple hours of sleep. Everyone was awake and around when we woke up, but it's hard getting everyone together in one room with the kids running around and the family getting things ready to head out on the boat. We were going to tell them by showing them pictures from my last marathon and at the end we slipped in the picture of the EPT and pictures from the sonogram. Right when I pulled out the pictures, everyone but one sister and my dad left. We figured we might was well go ahead. When the last race picture came up, my dad got distracted by something and my sister was the only one to see the real picture. She was very happy and excited for us, but tried to keep quiet so it would be a surprise for everyone else. Slowly but surely, everyone finally saw the pictures and found out the news. It feels so much better not having to keep that a secret anymore. Phew!

The next couple days were spent just hanging out with the family. It was good seeing everyone again. But as I expected, my running suffered. Between the lack of sleep and the energy exerted out on the water and the heat and humidity, my speed session on Saturday which included a 5 mile tempo run at 6:46 pace didn't really materialize. I ended up getting in 3 pretty weak runs on both Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was the 5 mile race in the Heritage Festival 5 Miler. I will put up my race report for this race in the next day or two.

My attitude towards running definitely suffered over the past week. Marc Fit ended up meeting for a run on Sunday. That worked out perfectly for me as I had to do a 17 miler and missed it on Saturday. I felt my time would be better spent sleeping in though. So I missed the weekend long run. Today I was still not completely into it, but was able to get myself out there for today's speed session. The schedule called for 5x1000 at 5:36 pace with 400 recoveries. I was a bit off today as I'm still getting back into it. Even with that, I'm still pretty happy with the results today.

.62 miles, 3:41(5:54 min/mile), 173 bpm
.62 miles, 3:35(5:46 min/mile), 175 bpm
.62 miles, 3:39(5:53 min/mile), 174 bpm
.63 miles, 3:34(5:40 min/mile), 177 bpm
.62 miles, 3:25(5:33 min/mile), 180 bpm

My schedule is not going to be any better than it was for the past month for the next week or three. I pretty much need to spend every waking hour working as I aim to meet a nearly impossible goal that is two weeks away. During this time I'm also playing in 2 softball leagues that will take up time 2 nights a week. I need to get in 2 speed sessions a week along with some other running. We are getting our house ready to put on the market on Saturday. Unfortunately, there is a lot involved with doing this. We are looking for another house to move into which also takes time. Somehow I'm thinking I may not have time to get in my runs to/from work at least once per week. Ugh! Bring on the caffeine!

And saving the best for last (anyone still reading?). We went to the doctor today for the 2nd checkup. We are now 12 weeks in. We got to hear the heartbeat of our child today. That is so cool. Knowing that little guy (probably a girl) is in there growing like mad is such an exciting thing. We can't wait to meet him in 6 months.

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