Sunday, September 9, 2007

A Whirlwind Weekend

First some housekeeping notes:

1) Congratulations to Kevin for completing the CajunMan Triathlon in an impressive 2 hours and 56 seconds (unofficial time.)
2) A grand thank-you to the Fighting Tigers of LSU for putting on quite a show on Saturday night in Death Valley against Virginia Tech (48-7). The first home game of the year is always exciting, but throw in a top-ten opponent and an 8:15 PM kickoff, and the stage was set for a party. It was one of the best days I've had in quite some time.

As scheduled, I took a rest day on Friday and physically prepared for my fourteen mile long run on Saturday morning. Friday's lunch and dinner included a carbohydrate load, and I did my best to drink water all day long so I wouldn't suffer from hydration issues like I did on Thursday.

The mental preparation was more difficult. My major obstacles were distance, sleep and logistics. Distance -- I haven't run this far before, so I had some self-doubt about completing it in strong form. Sleep -- this week has been horrendous on my sleep, but the problems would compound since I would be arriving in Baton Rouge after midnight and running less than six hours later. Logistics -- I wanted to join the Varsity Sports tempo run at 7:30 AM, but I had to figure out a way to get in about 8 miles beforehand since they were only scheduled for 6.6.

I was pleased with my run. I ran about 8.5 at about 8:15, took an 8 minute break, and ran about 6.4 at about 7:49 with the Varsity Sports group. The Varsity group had a "pickup" scheduled to get the heart rate going, but I thought I responded well by posting a 7:14 mile somewhere in the middle of the run. Running faster splits at the end of a long run is supposed to simulate the fatigue that sets in at longer distances.

That being said, it took a lot out of me . . . probably too much . . . so I didn't do anything at all today. There is a muscle in my left leg that's particularly sore, so I wanted to give it a break. But after watching Kevin's swim/bike/run, I thought of hitting the exercise bike after my trip back to Houston. Sunday night football put an end to that idea.

Motionbased is down again. I wish this wasn't a recurring theme, but the price is right (free) so I'll limit my complaints. Regardless, I post more exact times/distances when they get their act together.

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