Best...Workout....EVER

Saturday, that is. I had scheduled a 3 hour ride and 20 min run. Let me preface this story with I was the D.D. on Friday night for Corey's birthday. Another tidbit of info, I never go out, and if I do, I don't stay out much later than 11pm.

However, on Friday night, we were in West Memphis at the Dog race track. West Memphis is probably a solid 45 min from my apartment...about 30 from Corey's place. All 6 of us piled into Corey's SUV and I drove. The dog track was fun, but horse racing is better! I just wanted to pet the dogs :) Also, I wanted to adopt a retired greyhound. But I'm probably allergic to them, and Junior would get jealous. We ended up staying at the track until the last race, and left about 11:30pm. Corey and Andy wanted to go out on Beale St. and everyone else wanted to go home. So I dropped the boys off on Beale St. and took everyone else back to Corey's. By the time I got home and in bed, it was 1am!!! I text messaged Lisa and said I wouldn't make the group ride at 8am. There was no way I was going to ride 3 hours on 5 hours of sleep.

I felt bad and was disappointed I didn't go to the group ride 2 weeks in a row. But I knew I needed a quality workout, and if that meant doing it on my own, then so be it. I woke up about 9am, and started getting ready. I took my time to let it warm up a bit outside. I had to babysit at 4:30 that evening, so I finally got outside at 11:15. I started with a 30 min warmup, and followed that with 4x20 in HR zone 3, holding above 80rpms. After each 20 min, I had a 10 min easy recovery. Wow...I ROCKED THIS WORKOUT. This was probably the best ride of my life. I just felt so smooth. I was holding about 90rpms, in my big ring, perfect HR zones, slight headwind, and my legs weren't burning...that much. Obviously by the last interval, I was fatigued, but I still kept good numbers. I couldn't have had a better ride!

With that said, I really didn't want to ruin my perfect day with a bad run. But I knew it needed to be done. Besides the fact that I just didn't want to run, my legs were near toast at this point. I had to do it. I quickly changed into running clothes, as Junior stared at me with puppy dog eyes (which I could actually see) saying "Jeez can't I go, too???" I knew I only had 20 minutes. 10 minutes out, 10 minutes back. I started off and felt OK, but not great. Then I looked at my Garmin and realized I was running at a 9:30 pace. Ok, nevermind, this feels good! I ran down the street my apartment is on, turned left and over the bridge. There were guys working on finishing the sidewalk, and its not fun when they stare at you when you run by. Oh well, I was over it. I ran past the bridge until I got to as far as I could run. Normally, this would take me 10+ min...not today! I got there in about 9:30...exactly one mile from my apartment.

I turned around, passed the creepy bridge guys again, and headed over the bridge. Once I turn on my street, I always feel better knowing I don't have much further to go. But today, since I was flying, I'd have to run a loop inside my apartment complex to make my 20 minutes. I did and finally finished at 20 minutes. 2.1 miles! 9:30 pace! YAY!!! This is actually pretty good for me, especially as of late. I've had trashed legs for the past 3 weeks, so running a 9:30 pace felt amazing to me. I'm not a runner, so this is pretty close to Olympic speeds for me.

I started the day with a great ride, finished it with a great run. The real challenge of the day was not falling asleep while babysitting...good thing the parents got home right when it was getting close to my bedtime!

Another great week ahead. However, in my future is a 2 hour long run (Thurs) and a 4.5 hour ride (Saturday). Kinda nervous about those....