Long Week + 5K + Bike Sat/Sun

I squeezed five days of work into two days (plus nights), ran a day or two's worth of errands in one morning, met a client for lunch before kicking off a conference, spent the night at the hotel writing a presentation for the next afternoon, the next night writing one for the following morning, hurrying back home and taking daughter to haircut, dinner, son to campout, daughter to talent show, etc, etc.  To say this was a long week would be an understatement - mentally and physically exhausted would be more accurate.  Oh yeah, and you didn't note any workouts in that Mon-Fri timespan.

But Saturday was a new day.  Around 8:00 AM, we got ready to go and headed out for the 4th Annual Ava Brown Memorial 5K.  Last year it rained and I decided to go by myself at the last minute.  This year, the sun was shining, but it was in the mid-30's when we left the house.  Both my daughter and I wore yoga pants and jackets.  We signed up when we got there and visited with a bunch of the Team Virtus peeps.  We did a warmup jog with SuperKate.  She was aiming for a PR even though this course is TOUGH. 

Quick Pre-Race Pic

Nice when you race with friends who are bloggers and totally "get" wanting extra pics.

We lined up at 9 AM and Robby Brown fired the airhorn to get the crowd moving forward.  My daugher and I ran a bit, walked a bit and paced well all the way through.  We probably walked a bit more than we should have and went slower than we did at our last 5K (38:something I think).  But she continued to press on and not let herself struggle with the mental battle.  I was a proud mom.  I don't think I could have run a lot faster without her.  It is a tough loop with a big ass hill in the last mile after the aforementioned long ass week.

Happy to be done with our 5K!

Me and the 2nd Fastest Female at the Race: SuperKate!

We hung out afterwards visiting and waiting for awards.  I though there might be a possibility she would get an award as the race is small and I didn't see a lot of young girls running.  But she didn't get a medal and was disappointed.  I felt bad, but it is also a lesson about not always winning.  She bounced back after a little time at the playground and a couple balloons Robby agreed to let me take.  We headed over to Target to deal with the fact both of my kids are growing out of all of their clothes.  Then we picked up a pizza and headed home.

Quick change and out the door to meet Walter and a big group to do a ride from Holts Summit to Fulton and back for about 31 miles.  It was still kind of cool (high 50's/low 60's) and I decided to wear my jacket.  Of course I was overdressed as soon as we really got going.  Doh!  We didn't do the longer loop with the heartbreaking hills, but I was still feeling pretty demoralized by falling to the rear of the group a lot.  After the turnaround, I made a comment to Brie about all of the trainer time being such a waste as I was still annoyingly slow and weak.  But the closer we got to the end, the more I pushed to get back to my car.  She made a comment afterwards that she pooped out towards the end and I finished strong and she didn't think my winter workouts were wasted at all.  The down side of not hanging with fellow bloggers is that I am not as good about taking pictures.

I had some pain issues - in my left hamstring, in my right toes and in my knees.  Just one of those things I suppose.  Need to get the foam roller going to work it all out. 

Today is warm and sunny again though very windy.  Needed to get back out on bike - Tour de Cure will be here in just under 7 weeks!  Headed towards Taos and the wind was sucking.  Stopped at the top of the big hill on the way out to catch a drink and snap a pic I've thought of taking several times:

I tried to not capture the state penitentiary to the left and this is much prettier other times
of the year, but I am blessed to ride in such nice surroundings on a beautiful day.

Not sure the mph of the wind, but if you want an indication - I averaged 12 mph on the way out and 14.9 mph on the way back!  Just 18 miles total, but it felt like enough on the way out.  Felt awesome when I turned around like I was just hammering away with a lot less effort.  Makes me pray for a tailwind at the Tour.  Came home to a 50 cent cup of lemonade in my front yard.  Daughter and friends having fun, but also fighting the wind.  Solid weekend.  Another busy week of work to come.  Will have to do better at squeezing in the workouts though.

YTD:
Swimming = 5800 yds = 3.3 mi (MUST go to pool this week - TriZou in 3 weeks!)
Biking = 404.0 miles
Running = 77.7 miles