Another 20

Friday 6.0 miles/56:42/9:21 average pace

My first morning run since the time change, so it was back to my pre-dawn route. I took it really easy with my first mile over 10:00 and then a gradual speed up. I was pretty sleepy.

Saturday 20.0 miles/2:58:01/8:54 average pace

Another 20 miler in the books. This one was easier in terms of hills (there were none) and pace. I kept a comfortable pace and felt good until the final few miles when I sped up a little and pushed through to the end. I ran my go-to 20 mile course: Los Gatos Creek Trail from San Jose to just near the Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos. It's 10 miles out, then turn around and head back. My first 10 took me 1:31:40- an easy 9:10 pace. My return trip took 1:26:21- 8:38 average. The last three miles were 8:11 average pace. Once again I ran without my headphones! That's three long runs in a row- 58 miles of entertaining myself. It's kind of a cool streak- we'll see if I can keep it going. The run was scenic and there were tons of people out, so it wasn't hard. It was pretty cool here in the Bay Area this weekend - 50's with some wind and drizzle. I actually had a few minutes of hail hit me about 5 miles to go. It was crazy! It was wee little hail, but it stung. We have such mild weather here- I don't think I've ever seen hail in the 5 1/2 years I've lived here. Pretty neat. Zach was out on the trail walking while I ran, he actually walked 7 miles! Then we went out to the best breakfast ever- giant cinnamon rolls and huge omelets. Yummers.

I didn't take any cell phone pictures but there's a ton of Los Gatos Creek Trail in a previous post HERE. Wow.. just looked at that post and last time I ran this same course in almost the exact same time- just 5 seconds faster. That's amazing!

I slept like a rock last night, and woke up just in time this morning to see the Dublin St. Patrick's Day 5k Fun Run go by our house. I stood on the porch and cheered for all the runners and they waved and said "good morning!" right back. It was fun. They were doing a great job, but based on my observations I thought I could probably place pretty well in the race... ha ha. Shoulda coulda woulda.

Zach and I went up to the pool this afternoon for a short swim. I was going to try to swim a mile but I was feeling pretty wore out and decided against it. In fact, I would have bagged it entirely but Zach was persistent. He'd been looking forward to his first swim post-surgery and I didn't want to just sit home. I did 1000 yards in 22:40: 250 crawl, 250 backstroke, 250 pull, 250 crawl.

Tonight we drove down to San Jose again with our friends and went to see the Sharks go for their 12th straight win. Unfortunately they lost but it was a great game. Got to see my first-ever live shoot-out. We're leading the division so no complaints.

Anyway, TOTAL miles for the week: 43
PLUS 1000 m swimming (weak!)

I'm going to Seattle for work tomorrow - should be fun. I have a couple runs picked out and will decide when I get there. Here's my schedule for the week, only 5 weeks to Boston. :)

Monday: 8 miles (2 VO2 Intervals... planning on 4x 800)
Tuesday: xt or rest
Wednesday: 11 miles Medium Long
Thursday: xt
Friday: 10 miles GA
Saturday: 17 miles Long
Sunday: xt

TOTAL miles planned: 46

Despite the shorter long run, this will be my biggest week. Yeehaw!

Oh ya! On Saturday we purchased a new toy, a Trainer- the CycleOps Fluid 2. Zach got it all set up today and rode on it for a few minutes. It is pretty cool. I think it will come in really handy for both of us as we ramp up our bike training for Tri season. Once again, going to the bike shop got me really excited to get a bike. They had the WSD Trek Madone (Zach has the Trek Madone 5.0) and it's super snazzy... we'll see though. I think we're going to start shopping after Boston.

I'm off to bed, got to catch an early flight. Happy St. Patty's day!! :)