I could use a nap ...

I woke up this morning and really didn't want to get out of bed. Without stepping onto the floor, I already knew how sore I was. I knew that my abs were tight enough to make sitting up a struggle. I knew that my quads were burning. I knew that today would be one of those days that I was going to move VERY slowly. Because, yesterday, I ran 21.53 miles (a new training run distance PR) AND rocked P90X Legs and Back plus Ab Ripper X. Yup, I'm that hardcore.

Or, just crazy.

I bet you're kind of wondering how this all happened. So, here it goes. As you may recall, J, who is training for his first half, and I don't get to run together often. We don't have any family nearby and I can't bear to pay for a sitter, so that we can run. This means when we do have someone visiting (my mom is in town), we try to take advantage of it. So, on Saturday afternoon, J asked I would do his long run with him in the morning. I immediately said, "Sure!"

But, there was a hitch. I had already planned an 11 miler with G and Denise. And I wasn't about to bail. I just figured I would get a quality workout with them and follow it up (immediately) with a recovery run with J, since his pace is a bit slower than mine. PERFECT.

So, bright and early on Sunday, I woke up and met G and Denise for the first half of my run. Here we are before heading out. And yes, G and I are once again wearing matching clothing. We have ESP or something.

Anyway, we ran part of one of my favorite loops from our last cycle of marathon training. The pace was good. The conversation was hilarious. Basically, it was fantastic. We finished the 11 miles in 1:46:01 (9:36 pace). Then I jumped in the car, drove home and picked up J for his run, which was supposed to be 9 miles.

J planned the route and I was just along for support. We started out chatting, but as the miles passed, we became silent partners on a quest to finish. About 3 miles in J stopped to use the bathroom, while I kept circling the parking lot at the baseball field we were running past.

At that moment, I realized that if I added a little extra mileage during this run, I could set a new single day training record (the most I had ever done before on a training run was 20) AND if I hit 21.53 miles, I would have run 40 miles this week, which is something I have always wanted to do and is something I would eventually like to do consistently.

So, that's what I did. Any time I pulled ahead, I would loop back and catch J. And when we were a mile from home (J actually planned a 10 mile route even though he only had 9 on his schedule), I decided to take the longer loop and met J at home. When I got back, my Garmin read 21.53!! Part of me wanted to go run 4.67 miles more just so I could have said I ran a marathon yesterday. But, I think J would have had me committed. I finished the 10.53 miles with J in 2:02:24 (11:36 pace). My total time for the run was 3:48:25 (10:36 pace). And can I just note that my marathon PR is 5:06 and that I was CRUSHING that pace yesterday?

Here I am all smiles afterward.

And I ended the day with P90X, well, because I wasn't about to skip it. Yup, I'm crazy like that.

So, what did you do this weekend?