Monday Monday

Monday! I usually dread Mondays because I have to get up and go to work and the kids have Monday night league hockey making for a 14 hour day. Today was ever so wonderful as I'm off all week and had the day free! I ended up taking a rest day as planned from running yesterday and was quite rejuvenated and ready to go when I woke up this morning. My son is in kindergarten and goes to school every other day so he was home today. I ended up taking him and a couple of his buddies up to the rink at about 10 am. I LOVE these little boys. They all look so cute in their helmets and tiny hockey gear. They are not cute on the ice!! They are slashing, vicious, competitive demon boys and I have bruises all over my shins to prove it! Anyway, I played hockey with them for over an hour, the 3 of them against me. It's a fact, I have no fast twitch muscles. These kids are crazy fast. I might have a longer stride but they are like mosquitoes buzzing all over the place. Needless to say, I was laying on the ice in a pile of exhaustion when we were done. They beat me legitimately 38-12. What a workout!

I had already arranged with my friend to keep Max after we got back from skating (I took her son) so I could run. Running did not sound too appealing after this but I knew once I got going it would be fine. I'm currently not following a plan and I hadn't done mile repeats for awhile so I set out to do 10 miles with 4X1600's. I am really enjoying how quickly my body is recovering the more I keep training. One day off gives me so much more energy! I set out at about an 8:40 pace for 3 1/2 miles as a warmup. I felt like I could run 100 miles at this pace today. (I'm sure not) but I felt great just the same. I then broke into these repeats. I looked up what pace to use on McMillan's calculator. It said around 6:45. I set off. Mile one 6:44. I was lucky enough to get into a deep thought during this mile and actually forgot I was running for most of it. I slowed way down for .5 miles. Mile 2 6:41. Easy for the first 3/4, feeling it at the end. Another .5 recovery. Mile 3- 6:38. Actually feeling better than the last one. Mile 4- 6:29. I gunned it at the end of this one. Cooled down for a mile and quit at an even 10. This was what I would consider a great running day feeling wise. One of those days that only comes along once in a blue moon, the kind of day you pray for on race day. I'm going to relish it because I never have 2 in a row.

On another happy note, I was down 6 pounds since the marathon this morning. I think all the stress of needing to hit certain paces in marathon training and thinking I needed enough "fuel" to perform well threw me for a loop as I really can't explain how I could hit my highest weight in 10 years (minus pregnancies) while running significant mileage. Anyway, I feel much better especially when I'm running.

To top off the day, I made the most delicious dinner! Unfortunately, my husband didn't make it home from work to eat it since he coaches my son's team and had to head straight to the rink for practice. He is still there-poor guy!

Tomorrow, 48 degrees, hot for MN in November. Heading out for about an 8 mile easy run. Tony Horton and I have a date in the morning!