Working From Home

I need to apologize for being M.I.A. this last week.  I have been pretty dang busy!  Who knew that when I started working from home I would feel like I had LESS time to get my normal things done? Like blog reading, watching crap TV or even running!  My boss, you should meet her, is a real bitch and a slave driver!  LOL! (that's for you Beth!) The hard thing about having your office at home is that it calls to you all the time!  When you sit down to do something non-work related, your mind wanders back to what you could be doing for your business.  I guess I was wasting a ton of time at my last firm!

So, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  The good thing is, I'm finally getting some steady work.  I will admit I was getting worried there for a bit.  But fortunately the ground work I laid before hand and early on has started to pay dividends.  It looks like we won't have to eat top ramen and peanut butter and jelly for every meal ;)

Running last week went well.  I hit all my key runs and managed to eek out 48 miles.  Speed was not happening much for me.  I hit the track on Wednesday last week and I had no speed left - I must have left it all out there at the race :)  But I was able to get some good shorter runs in and let my legs truly recover.  Friday I headed out for my big long run for the week - 20 miles! 

The weather in the Bay Area has been weird, to say the least, the last week or so.  Cold and foggy in the mornings, but humid and warm in the afternoons.  WTH?  Humidity?  We don't normally have that here - which gives me a very high sensitivity to it.  When I left for my long run on Friday morning around 7:30 it was nice and cool out - perfect running temps.  By the time I was done just before 10:30, it was warming and humid!  I was sweating like crazy the last five miles!  I think that actually helped me to finish faster because I just didn't want to be out running in it any longer!  It wasn't the best long run ever, yet it wasn't too bad either.  My pre-run fueling was great, I took a total of 5 salt tabs, and ate my little 1"x1" PB&J sammy's about every three miles - washing it all down with Nunn.  I even negative split the second half.
20 miles - 2:51:11 8:33/mi pace overall
first 10 - 1:26:50 - 8:40/mi pace
last 10 - 1:24:21 - 8:25/mi pace

What did kill me when I was done was all the lactic acid I had built up in my calves!  OMG it hurt so bad!  Usually I don't get this crippling pain until after I finish a marathon!  But the second I stopped running it just plain hurt.  I came in right away and started to stretch the best I could and then proceeded to roll them out.  When I was able to walk again I jumped in the car and grabbed two large bags of ice and a jamba juice for my ice bath ;)  The ice bath was perfect - it really did it's job.  When I got out my legs felt awesome, so I put on my compression socks and called it a day.  Saturday when I woke up I was prepared to feel like garbage, but surprisingly I felt awesome still.  I was able to run a decent 8 mile recovery run - in the humidity again :(

Sunday I woke up early before Mass and headed out for a quick 11 miles to finish out the week.  I feel really good after this last week, and the cut back was just what I needed.  This week is a mini-taper for me because...I have the Lake Tahoe Marathon this Sunday!  I'm actually really excited about this.  It's been running through my head a lot.  I've been going over race strategy and fueling and all the details.  My goal this year is to PR the course.  Each year I have ran it I have gotten faster.  I'm hoping this year will be the same.  Last year I ran it in 4:19:33 - but I also had an injury at the time.  This year I'm pretty injury free - aside from my damn knee - so I'm hoping that will help.  The first half the course if very flat, it's the second half that is uphill then all down hill the last - I'll give you all more details come Friday.

I would like to keep my miles around 45-50 again this week, but that will include the marathon.  I don't wan to fall off my miles or speed this week because I still have Long Beach to worry about.  Sounds like you were all very busy running long and racing this weekend!  I'm off to catch up!  I promise I will be a better blogger this week! ;)
Happy Monday and Happy Running peeps!