Hard workouts are the BEST!

Yesterday I had a huge list of things I wanted to get done that day and I might have been feeling a little stressed/overwhelmed about it so Pete told me not to worry about my brick. That he would get home in time for me to do it in the afternoon so I could just focus on the other things on my list. Isn't he the greatest husband ever?!

It was so nice just to have the whole morning at home, and I got right to work doing laundry, cleaning the very messy kitchen/dining room and sorting papers. I got the kitchen all clean right around lunch time so Elle and I headed outside after that to dig up weeds and start getting mounds ready for our melons and squash and such. I had just gotten the first spot ready for a pile of diet when Pete got home! There was definitely a storm blowing in so he got home even earlier than planned so I could get out before it hit! Awesome! I finished with my dirt pile then went in and got ready to go.

It was SUPER windy but I hardly noticed it at first because I was going with the wind for most of the way out. It's so weird to have it be totally windy, then you turn and it seems like the wind's gone, but for some reason you're able pull a nice steady 25 mph on flat without really trying. Yeah, that was fun!

I knew it wouldn't be fun on the way back, but it's hard to tell how much the wind is going to affect you until your facing into it. The whole way back was against the wind. There were places I had a hard time going 8mph on flat! It was a slow push back home, but I didn't mind. I felt like it was just going to make me stronger. In fact, when I stopes to text Pete to remind him to pick the kids up and I commented on how windy it was he said "Wind builds character."

It took me 40 minutes to get to my turn around point, at about 12 miles, and it took me an hour and 3 minutes to get home!

Total distance: 24.5 miles
Total time: 1:43
Average speed: 14.6 mph

I was really tired when I got home and I only had about 30 minutes until i needed to take Mindy to ballet (Pete was trying to get some work done), but I've only got 2.5 weeks until St. George Tri so I need to stop missing my bricks,

I hurried and took my rain jacket off, changed my shirt because I hate running in the one I wore for the ride, and put my Bioms on. I was worried about them hurting, but they really weren't bad. My cycling shoes had actually hurt worse. I grabbed the Garmin and headed out the door. I didn't even think about my iPod, but I was fine without it. I looked at my pace when I'd gone about a block and it was 8:07! I was like, "wow, slow down there turbo," I knew I couldn't keep that pace up for very long so I slowed down, but I tried not to slow down too much since I knew it was going to be a short run. I felt good!

Total distance: 2.18 miles
Total time: 19:55
Average pace: 9:09 min/mile (I like the looks of that!)

It never did rain yesterday, but the wind was crazy! By the time I went to bed at about 9:30, my eyes were really irritated from all the dust in the air and I was just glad to close them. I decided then that I wouldn't get up and run early in the morning because either the air would still be really bad or it would be raining. I had a nice breakfast with the family, took the kids to school then headed over to the gym with Elle. I totally forgot that the childcare doesn't open until 8:45. We got there at about 8:30 so we had to sit in the car and wait for a while. It was raining by the way.

I was supposed to do 8 miles today so I decided to do 2 sets of 4 miles and see if that was easier for me to handle. It was really hard. For the first set, I started on 5.5 mph and just turned it up a click or two every 5 minutes. I don't even remember how high I got up to. I took one little break in the middle and finished the 4 miles in 40:22. I stopped and took a little break - went to the bathroom, drank a bunch of water and dried off as good as I could. Yeah, I was soaking wet! Even my shorts were totally wet. I was glad I wore my tri shorts since they're made out of swimsuit-like material. I was thinking "man, I probably would have stayed more dry if I ran in the rain!" oh well, this was what I was doing so I headed back out to the treadmill.

This set was so hard! I tried to just keep it at a 10 min/mile pace for the whole time, but that didn't happen. I stopped for a minute after two miles and again after three. By then I was just hoping to finish at all so I did a nice 12 minute pace for the last mile. I finished that 4 mile set in 43:10. I had about 10 minutes to stretch before the childcare closed! Phew, that was a close one!

Total distance: 8 miles
Total time: 1:23:32

I did my last 8-miler outside in 1:18:54! I like outside so much better! I need to remember this next time I don't want to get up early and run in the rain! But, again, when I texted Pete about this run and told him it was tough but that I finished it, he said,"Great. I'm glad it was hard." he wasn't saying that to be mean, but because he knows, and I know, that it's the hard workouts that make you the strongest. The harder my training runs are, the easier my marathon is going to feel. :) oh, and did I mention St. George Tri is in 2.5 weeks?! I'm excited for my first tri of the season. I hope I still remember how to do it all!

St. George Ironman is this weekend so good luck to everyone doing that! (if you are doing it, let me know because I don't actually know anyone doing it...) it's going to be brutal! (I mean, fun!)