I usually try to go swimming the Monday after a race to help loosen up my sore muscles, but I did something weird to my neck/shoulder just as I was laying down to bed Sunday night. It was really sore on Monday so I took the day completely off.
I did go swimming on Wednesday and Friday, but both were really short workouts - Wednesday because my shoulder was still pretty sore and I didn't want to make it worse (I did a lot of kicking), and Friday because I didn't get to the gym until 35 minutes before the daycare closed. Totally my fault, but a short swim is better than no swim!
Thursday I ran intervals around the park while the kids played. This is actually kind of fun to do, and the loop around the park is just a little more than a quarter mile so it's a good distance for that. I also did a couple Nike Training Club workouts - Marathon Prep and Core Crunch. Both are 15 minutes, but they are hard workouts so it adds up to a really good half hour!
Friday, after swimming and picking the kids up from school, I went and gave blood. I was so worried that they would turn me away for being low on iron because that's happened before, and I was feeling really tired and sick after my workouts on Thursday. I've also almost been turned away because I was too cold once! So I'm always worried that something's going to happen, but everything was fine this time and it went pretty smoothly! Yay! I love the Red Cross and I love giving blood because it's something you can do that you know will affect someone and maybe save a life or THREE!
I decided to take Saturday completely off because last time I gave blood I had a terrible time on my run the next day. I hate lazy Saturday's, though. I always get depressed when I'm just sitting around. Arg.
Anyway, I actually felt really good on Saturday and slept well, which is unusual, so I decided to do a nice long run Sunday morning. I headed out with the plan of doing 8 miles, up to the mouth of City Creek and back, and it was a perfect day for a run!
When I got close to the train tracks, I saw there was a freight train stopped on the tracks, so I turned and went to North Temple where I could go over the bridge. That hill was hard, and I ended up walking the top part. I was having a really hard time, but the first mile or 2 is always hard, and I also blamed it on that hill. I kept running, and started noticing more and more people on the sidewalk, dressed in their Sunday best, toting their little kids along. I realized that, dang it, something was going on at the Conference Center and as I got closer I had to start running in the grass to get around people. Luckily it was only like this for a couple blocks, but I was still having a hard time running, and all this time it's still uphill. I got past all the congestion, then crossed State Street and found that the drinking fountain there was turned on! Hallelujah!
I got a drink and just sat down on the bench there. I texted Pete this progress report and told him I was having a hard time and he reminded me to listen to my body and that I just gave blood for crying out loud. I need my blood! I've discovered that it's really a lot harder to get oxygen to your lungs when you have 2 cups less blood in your body!
So I decided to sit there for 10 minutes until after 10:00, which was my guess to when the meeting would start and all the people would be off the streets. It was nice to just sit there, then it was fun running back down that street. That is one of my favorite places to run because it doesn't really seem like it's much of a hill so it makes me feel really fast running past all the people that are out, and luckily there were only a few people left this time.
So here's to giving blood, and running in the city where there are drinking fountains!
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