Friday Lift and Monday Milage

Friday was another full-body workout day. Did a lot of legs and everything upper body but my back. I was almost moving between exercises fast enough to make the workout cardiovascular, but I think a few of my rests gave my heart rate time to settle. .

I had been planning on running for 3 hours on Sunday but ran instead into a serious need for sleep. Woke up around 2 PM and then HAD to watch my Duke Blue Devils play Carolina in B-ball (we lost :( ). The evening was already nailed down to plans.. My Mom flew into town Thursday night and my Fiance Robyn, my roommate Justin, and I are playing host! We've all been having great, awesome conversations til the wee hours of the morning. My Mom is visiting until Wednesday morning so I chose to take Monday off to spend time with her (She was in a full day course Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

We ate an awesome lunch Monday at the place we chose for the wedding rehearsal dinner and then I started my 3 hour run when we got back (my last long run in prep for the marathon!). I drove out to Gravelly Point and started my run at 3:40 PM. I ran all the way to the southern outskirts of Olde Town Alexandria by way of the Mnt Vernon Trail. I had a tail wind the whole way which I didn't have a full appreciation for until I turned around! When I got back to my car at Gravelly point, I had likely done 9 miles (didn't have my GPS with me). I got some water out of the car and ate half a banana and trekked on North. I downed a 2x caffeine mocha-flavored goo just before crossing the Key Bridge into Bethesda. I then hooked along the canal tow path for a couple miles West. The wind was biting and very hard to run into -- I got really sore in my calves during that whole North and West leg. It was really neat to see a rather large beaver get into the canal ahead of me and swim off to the other bank with what looked like motivation.

I turned around just before Fletcher's Boathouse and finally had the wind at my back. Wouldn't you know it, but I'd swear that the wind actually died down significantly by that time (~6 PM) so I felt cheated out of the nice tail wind I thought I'd "worked" for. I got close to the beaver again and it did the same thing. He was swimming "with me" (same direction) so I got a good look at him. He looked comfortable. Not like me!

I really got to hurting when I got back over to Roslyn via the Key Bridge. Mostly, my calves and my over-all energy were flagging. I took a walking break between Memorial and 14th street bridge that lasted about 2 minutes. Plowed on to the last mile-marker before Gravelly Point and then warm-down walked the rest. I got to my car at 6:50 and not a moment too soon -- it was COLD.

I was ready to fall asleep in my car seat! Exhausted! I'd really like to run in better conditions down in VA Beach. March 18th and South of here should be a little better ;)

I'm going to do maintenance runs from here on out to marathon day. I'll probably also do one more day of speed work to keep nimble!