by While it was hard for me to bypass Galveston, I’m glad I did — this was a much needed restful weekend.
I’d had a very busy week of school-related stuff, which left me wrung out. Then, hubby got back in town after a full week of travel. He’s offered to plan and cook dinner on the weekends to help me with my new meal focus, and that’s a big break for me. I was able to sleep in Saturday morning and then go to my friend Jason’s house for a long run.
It is a lot of fun to have Jason to run with. Besides the fact that I just enjoy his company, his place is a great jumping-off point for getting on the greenbelt. He has a thorough grasp of all the trails and distances and puts together very enjoyable routes. And while he is faster, I don’t think we’re so far apart that it’s too slow for him to have me along.
He is very kind to wait for me at turns. While I know the greenbelt well enough to not get lost, I can’t always name trails, and what I visualize may not always be what someone else is talking about. For instance, on our first loop, I knew we were taking Foxy down…and I’ve run Foxy a couple of different ways…and I knew I should look for a turn…but I wound up staying on the ridge and going back to the HOL. I knew what I’d done and debated going back to pick up the turn, but I figured that would put me too far behind Jason. So I just came down the HOL and headed toward where I knew Jason would pop out — and sure enough, he was there waiting. So I think we are in sync with one another, as he said he knew I’d show up.
I actually felt better towards the last half of the second loop than at the end of the first. My hip seems to be doing well, though it’s a bit achey by the time I finish coming up the HOL. And I think on our second time down Foxy, I was attempting to stretch things out on the downhill and wound up overstriding a bit, because as it flattened out, my right knee gave an awful twinge. It was like I’d slightly put something in my knee out of the right place. I hopped a bit, limped a bit, and had to walk some downhill and then, as suddenly as it happened, it seemed to right itself and I was back in business. From there on back in, it really felt pretty good.
The creek is fabulous, the water clear and cold. It was so nice to stand in it and be refreshed. I’d forgotten my bandana but I’ll remember it next time so I can put a cold cloth around my neck. I wore my new pack, which is smaller and puts less weight on the small of my back — for the first loop, I carried my Camelbak. But it felt so nice to shed the bulky Camelbak for the second loop. I don’t know if it’s hamstring related or what, but the one area where I feel sore after long runs lately is my lower back. I’m going to work on stretching and strengthening that to see if it helps.
After our run, I cleaned up and made my transformation into soccer mom, heading over to my boy’s club game. I was starving and kicked myself for not thinking ahead and having a good-for-me snack at the ready. I’ve GOT to do a better job planning. Afterwards, we came home and I crashed for a bit. I woke up to a lovely dinner of salmon, brown rice, green salad, and roasted beets with a balsamic vinegarette and feta. Nice! We watched “The Soloist” and I slept like a baby.
Sunday, we slept in and then completed some yard work that desperately needed to be done, rewarding ourselves with brunch out. I’d meant to go to the noon swim workout but when I reread the description, it said the group was full and drop-ins were welcome at 11 a.m. only. Darn. There was another soccer game and I intended to walk at the park but I got involved in conversation and that passed. It was a beautiful afternoon for soccer. Again, I missed bringing a healthy snack, so I wound up starving. Clearly, I am my own worst enemy on eating well.
I’m finishing up laundry and the hubby is working on dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll coach and then come home, clean up, and drive to the ‘doches for my daughter’s concert (and YES, I’m going to do a good job with my food maintenance!). It’ll be funny — she asked me to stay at her apartment with her, so it will be my first time with a kid as my host. We’ll go out for breakfast before her class Tuesday morning; I’d like to drop her at school and then make my way back to Austin so I can go to the workout Tuesday night, which is a run at Walnut Creek and an opportunity to hear all about how my buddy Stacey did at her first half Ironman.
Hubby and I were talking today about our timeline over the next year (and I’m talking school-teacher year, from the end of school now-May 2010-to end of school in May 2011). We’ve got a kid (the last kid) graduating, a house to spruce up to put on the market, remodeling plans to determine for the “retirement home,” soccer booster club leadership duties and, oh, yeah…I think I want to do another Ironman on top of all that. Sheesh. I almost hyperventilated thinking about it.
Oh, well — it’s just like a long run. Break it down into bits and just put one foot in front of the other, and eventually, it all gets done!
