Great Weekend!

Well, the weekend was busy as usual, but fun-filled too! 

Friday night we headed to the Kansas City Royals Game with some friends.  It was so hot!!  We were all a sweaty mess, but the Royals won so it was still a good time.  I took pictures but haven’t had time to download them yet.  We got home around 11pm, which meant we weren’t going to get much sleep.  I was up at 5am the next morning for my long run.

So Saturday I completed another 8 mile run in the stifling heat and humidity.  I got to wear my new Camelbak during my run though.  I love this thing!!  I bought the kind that goes around your waist vs. the backpack.  I really love it!  I think the backpack would have driven me crazy, but the waistpack is great!  It was so nice to have water (well Gatorade) anytime I needed it.  Last weekend on my 10 mile run I didn’t get any water until mile 6 and thought I was going to die.  Last weekend I also tried to incorporate a walk/run strategy.  I did 9 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking.  It worked pretty well for about 5 or 6 miles, but then I totally bonked at the end.  Running in this heat and humidity just really takes it out of you.  This weekend I decided to opt for a 4 minute run/1 minute walk.  It worked great.  I was able to keep this up for 7 miles with no problem.  My last mile had some major hills and I was tired, so I ended up walking a lot more that last mile, but overall I thought it worked well and I finished about 30 seconds per mile faster overall than during my 10 mile run – even with walking more.  I think this might be the strategy I use for my marathon training.



This is my new Camelbak....cute even :)



Sunday, I got up for a long bike ride.  It was overcast and gloomy and by the time I made it to the lake it was raining.  I was riding alone.  I almost thought about going home, but decided not to be a wuss.  It was actually a beautiful morning.  It was the first rain in at least 3 weeks.  The sun was peaking through the clouds – it was gorgeous!  It was also about 10 degrees cooler for a change too.  The high yesterday was only in the low 90s vs the 100s and the humidity was a bit lower too.  It rained on me several times during my ride, and both me and my bike were a dirty mess when I got home, but I still had an enjoyable ride and put in 33 miles.

Just before my ride.  Beautiful!  Great pic even with a camera phone

After my ride I met up with some girlfriends for a day at Oceans of Fun (a local water park).  We had a blast.  The rain finally moved out and the sun came out.  It was perfect!  It was nice to just relax by the pool and enjoy some sun and girl talk.

Overall, I have had some great training weeks over the last month.  My last three weeks I put in 10 hours and 12 minutes, 10 hours and 21 minutes and 10 hours and 23 minutes of training per week!  That’s a lot for me.  This week I will scale back a bit.  I have my next Sprint Triathlon on Saturday.  Then the following week will be a bit of a recovery too as I will be on vacation.  I am going to try to run and swim while on vacation, but biking will be limited.  More on the vacation later!

I hope everyone had a great weekend too!  What did you do this weekend?