If this is insane, I don't miss sanity

I'm beginning to believe it when people tell me I'm insane.  Here's why.  My weekend consisted of the following things:

13 miles running
39 miles cycling
6+ miles Lucy walking
2 ice baths

With all those miles laid out back to back, I could have traveled from Seattle almost all the way to Olympia (typically a 1.5 hour drive).  I don't think normal people do that.  Therefore, there must be some sort of sanity in my head that has slowly slipped away in the past couple years to cause me to want to do this.  I guess I lost a few marbles along the way, but I've got to say that they are not marbles I miss.  Yes, I am admittedly insane, and I am OK with that.  In order to reinforce my insanity, let's recap the weekend.

I woke up Saturday morning at 6:45 in order to drive to the Centennial Trail in Samammish (a bit too far away for my typical  Saturday practice taste) to meet the current Summer Team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.  With this team, I'm training and fundraising for the Rock N Roll San Diego Marathon on June 3.  We met at our typical 8:30 meet-up time and ran through our announcements.

If you don't know anything about Team in
Training, look it up.  They've been a huge part
of my life in the past 2 years.

We started our run with a "mission mile" walk.  We typically start our runs with a "mission moment," which consists of someone telling us about their connection to blood cancers.  Some of these stories are happy success stories, so of them are not.  For the mission mile, our team captain and a couple other mentors set up signs with the names of all of the people we are running for on our team.  We took a quiet walk through the signs.

These solemn moments remind us why we are
bugging all of our friends and family for money
and also help to give us the motivation we need
to push through the hardest miles.

Then we started running.  It was not the best feeling run for me.  Ever since pushing it in the Whidbey Island Half, my legs have felt like lead.  This may be because I haven't had time to properly care for them.  I didn't ice bath or foam roll after the half.  The week after that, I ran 15 miles and then got into a car to drive 5 hours and go wine tasting for an entire weekend.  Again, no ice bath or foam rolling.  This did not bode well for muscle recovery.  I came back from the wine tasting weekend, ran a 5 mile tempo run with a huge hill at the end on Monday, ran another 4+ miler with my teacher running club on Wednesday, and then did a hilly bike ride from my house to and around Magnolia and back again (15-20 miles, not sure of exact distance) on Thursday.  And so, yesterday morning's run was hard on the legs.  The trail was pretty though, and the sun managed to shine a bit.

There were lots of farms, and horses.  Good
running scenery.

And even though the run was tough, I still managed to smile pretty and look super excited for the camera.

This picture is a lie.  I did not feel this excited
or happy.  But a picture of the way I really
felt would not have been suitable for internet
viewing.

After the run, I went out to breakfast with a few teammates at a place called Creekside Alehouse and Grill.  I did not partake in any ale drinking.  I had big plans for the rest of my Saturday that included cleaning my apartment, doing laundry, walking Lucy, and maybe being social and going out for a drink with friends (I know, this again makes my life sound very exciting, but if it makes you feel better, I did manage to go out for a bit, even if I was home and in bed by 11:30).

When I got home from practice, I took an ice bath, which is something that I had been sorely missing (sorely, haha, get it?  Puns are fun).  If you have never experienced an ice bath, my description will make you really want to become a distance runner.  First, you make a hot cup of tea and put on the warmest sweatshirt you own.  Then, you fill your tub with the coldest water you can get.  Then you plunge yourself into the cold water.  Then you take 1-3 bags of ice and pour them into the tub with you.  Then you sit in the tub for 15-20 minutes.  Sounds really fun, right?  Do you want to run a marathon now?  The benefits of an ice bath more than pay off for the "slight" discomfort though.  Because of my weekend ice bath(s), I will be able to walk at work tomorrow.  I forgot to take a picture of the bag of ice pre-ice bath, so here's a picture of the empty bag as proof of my ice-bath-taking.

My ice baths require a pink hammer.  Does
that make you nervous?

After the 20 minute ice bath defrost, I took a ridiculously long, hot shower.  I vacuumed, did some laundry, half-heartedly cleaned the bathroom, and then walked Lucy for an hour.  Unfortunately, Lucy can't come along on runs any long than 6 or 7 miles, so she gets exercise separately on these days.  The day was beautiful, and I allowed Lucy some time to smell the flowers.

Immediately after this, she tried to roll in
whatever oh-so-interesting smell this was.  I do
not understand the doggy desire to roll in
awful-smelling things. 

Then I went home and finished up the laundry I'd been working on all day.  My bathroom is transformed into a running clothes drying room on laundry days.  I have running shirts that account for almost every race I've ever done, from 5Ks to full marathons and everything in between.

Running shirts don't go into the dryer, they
are too precious.   Everything else I own
however, does.

After being productive, I allowed myself some fun time with friends that included going to a Team in Training fundraiser and sharing a bottle of wine with some girls.  As mentioned before, I was home and in bed by 11:30.  I tried to watch a movie on my Kindle Fire in bed, but fell alseep less than halfway through it.  This is why I don't own a TV anymore.  I can't watch a screen with falling immediately asleep.  Total waste of money.

I allowed myself to "sleep in" Sunday morning and woke up at 9:00.  Sleeping in for me used to mean waking up in double digit hours.  I think those days have sadly (and happily) passed.  I grabbed my cycling gear, threw my bike in my car, and headed out to West Seattle to meet my friends Erica and Jason for a 40 mile bike ride (yes, I know I said 39 miles before, but I'm officially calling it 40.  If you disagree, go out and ride 39 miles and then come back and tell me it's not 40).  This is in preparation for the Seattle to Portland bike ride (also known as STP, not to be confused with Stone Temple Pilots) that I'm doing in July.  We started just under the West Seattle bridge and rode to the Vashon ferry terminal (a little under 10 miles).  We hopped on the ferry which gave us time to take some great pictures with a grey sky background.

I'm beginning to get used to pictures of me in
a bike helmet.  It kind of makes my face look
smaller.

Yay for puffy jacket pictures.  Thanks wind, you make us look awesomely skinny.

If you think I'm insane, meet Jason.  Jason is an Ironman
(as all of his biking gear with tell you).  He is currently training
for a 50 mile run the same weekend as my marathon.  He biked
60 miles on Saturday, then did 40 with us today.  He planned
to go for a run when he got home.  Also, meet Erica.
Her sanity is equal to mine.

After getting off the ferry, we biked up a HUGE hill.  I'm not exaggerating.  As we were going up, Jason began singing "This is the hill that never ends" merrily to the tune of the "song that never ends."  My progress up the hill has not helped by the fact that I failed to realize I could still downshift 2 more gears.  At the top of the hill, Jason kindly pointed this out to me.  I'm still a "beginning" biker.  I have much to learn.

The rest of Vashon Island was gorgeous but hilly.  We stopped at a cute little delicious bakery for sustenance.  

Awesomely rustic, especially when Instagrammed.

Then we grudgingly hopped back on the bikes to finish out the rest of the island, hop back on the ferry, then bike the final 10 miles back to the car.  We apparently climbed (in ups and downs) about 1800 feet during the duration of our entire ride.  This resulted in the need for another ice bath.

See the 2 bags of ice?  And the pink hammer?
And the cup of tea on the toilet seat?  All
necessary.

And if you still don't believe me:

The water makes my legs look unflatteringly
large here.  I accept it.

After the ice bath, defrost, and hot shower, Lucy got a speedy 30 minute walk while my tummy tried to eat itself.

Now happily full, I am exhausted, spent, and ready for bed.  Am I crazy for having a weekend like this?  Yes.  Did I have fun?  Yes.  Was it challenging?  Yes.  Can I count my successes in ice baths?  Yes.  Do I regret anything about my weekend?  No.  Will I do it again next week?  Yes.  And you'll probably hear about that too.

P.S.  Still wondering what the pink hammer is for?  Leave a comment and take a guess :)  Maybe I'll tell you.