Awesome Weekend

My awesome weekend started out on Friday morning when it was raining, but it was ok it was raining because it was a swim day! Yay! On the way to the pool I was noticing my neck still hurt a little bit so, after debating about it for a few minutes, I reached in the glove box for one of our emergency Excedrin. Maybe that was what helped me have such a great swim, I don't know.

Here's what I did:

Warmup:

200 kick

200 swim

200 pull

200 swim

6 x 100 on the 2:00 (I know, I need to start doing them at like 1:50, but it's just so much harder to do the math that way!)

1. 1:35 (wahoo!)
2. 1:41
3. 1:45
4. 1:45
5. 1:45
6. 1:46

I actually don't think those were all exactly 1:45, but it was 2 days ago, I can't remember exactly! They were right around there, though, and I know my longest one was 1:46 and I was really happy about that! Next time I will do 7 or 8 of those.

2 x 400 (It was supposed to be descending, but it didn't workout that way)

1. 3:45
2. 3:48

300 easy pull

4 x 50 @ :40

At least that's what it said to do, but for the life of me, I could not get it any lower than :45. I'm getting there, though. Right?

Cooldown

300 alternating back and easy

Total Distance: 3000 m

Total Time: 1:10 (again, I can't remember exactly how long, but about that)

I shared a lane with this really fast lady pretty much the whole time. That probably also had something to do with me doing so well. I tell ya, I need someone fast to swim with regularly. When she got out, I told her she was really fast. She said she "used to be a swimmer, but that was 20 years ago." Wow, I wonder how fast she was back then. It was nice to share my lane with her.

Soon after I got home, my sister got there. Then we picked the kids up and headed to Heber to go get pedicures with my other sisters and soon-to-be step-mom. We dropped the kids off with my brother then headed to the salon. It was so much fun to hang out with them all and getting pampered. While we were there, I booked a massage since it was $30 and that's exactly what I had in my spending money. It was my first massage, and she commented several times about how tight my shoulders and neck were. It felt so good, but I could have used another half hour. She told me to get a massage whenever I can because I'm so tight.

We went back to my dad's house, had pizza and shakes, and watched Avatar. I was one of only 3 people in the country who hadn't seen it before. My brother and sister-in-law were the other two. It was fun to watch, and it was really good, but I was a little sad I missed out on the 3-D. I only ate half my shake at the beginning of the movie, and when it was over and I was getting ready for bed, my stomach was still hurting. It's just not worth it to make myself feel like that just to have a yummy taste in my mouth for like 5 minutes. I need to remember that.

Saturday morning, my sister, Katie, and I took my car down to Provo and my dad took us back up to the top of the canyon at Vivian Park. I realized on the way up there that my Garmin was about to die so I didn't even bring it with me. I was so mad at it because it had been turned off, why was it dead!? Arg! Oh well, Katie had mapped out our route for 13 miles so I didn't really need it. It was pretty much the route of the half marathon she ran a couple years ago, and most of the run would be on the course the Utah Valley Marathon will be. We were excited to do an all downhill run and to preview the course.

I wore a long-sleeved shirt and shorts, and it was perfect. It wasn't too cold, but there was a pretty cold breeze and a lot of shade that made me glad to have the long sleeves. The canyon was so beautiful, and it was such a nice day. Not a cloud in the sky. It got me really excited to run Utah Valley because it's going to be even pretty when it's all green. Right now the trees are still bare, but it was still pretty.

I got down to Vivian Park so fast, I couldn't believe it. I stopped at the bathroom there and checked my phone to see how long it had been. It had been less than 40 minutes! When we were driving up, we talked about Vivian Park being about half-way. I told myself that couldn't be right, but it made me feel good anyway. I felt so good, and just got running again. From here on out, we ran on a nice paved path that goes along the river, and all the way into Provo. It was so nice to not have to worry about cars or anything for the whole run.

I was just so amazed at how good I felt, I didn't have any pain and I wasn't too tired. When I stopped, my knees were a little bit sore, but not in an injury kind of way. I took my phone out again and looked at the time. It had been 1:48. WHAT!? For 13 miles?! I was so excited, but inside I knew it really couldn't have been 13 miles. If it was, that was really fast!

While I stretched, I called Pete and drank my Recoverite. Then I drove a couple miles to a store to buy some ice while I waited for Katie to finish. She was done when I got back and she said the same thing I was fearing, "That had to be less than 13 miles." Unfortunately, she didn't have as great of a run as me. She was really tired and sore by the time she got to the end, and she didn't feel like she could have gone any farther. I kind of felt bad that I felt so good. I totally could have kept going, and I wasn't even sore. I didn't even use the ice, I just gave it to to her to put on her knees and feet on the drive home, then she used it for an ice bath. I didn't do any of that, and I wasn't even really sore afterwards. I guess all my hard runs during the week are paying off!

I didn't get a chance to get on mapmyrun.com to check out what our actual distance was until today. I kind of knew what was coming, but was still hoping for 13 miles. Turns out, it was just a little more than 11. I wasn't doing very well with mapmyrun, and ended up closing it before getting an exact distance so I'm just going to say it was 11.1 miles.

Total Distance: 11.1

Total Time: 1:48

Average Pace: 9:44 min/mile

Not nearly as great as I thought it was. It was still a great run, though. I had fun and felt great. I hope that means running 15 miles next week won't kill me!

That afternoon was my dad's wedding. It was so beautiful and fun and happy. My sisters and I sat on the front row and cried. They were smart and had grabbed a kleenex before it started. I was holding, Elle, and she was holding my hand so I couldn't stop the tears from just running down my neck. I was a little worried I would start sobbing. I didn't though. Elle was getting a little worried with everyone crying, and I tried to explain to her that we were crying because we were so happy. I'm sure that can't make sense to a 3-year-old though.

This is a picture of me and Elle that Pete took on his iPhone. Pretty amazing hu?

I am so happy for my dad. He's been single for almost 25 years since my mom died when I was 5. He has just been such an amazing dad, raising us 4 small children by himself and always putting us first. Angela is just such a sweet, loving, fun woman. I'm so happy she's part of our family now and that my dad won't be alone anymore. They're in Vegas for their honeymoon right now.