I am a weekend warrior

If weekends can be measured in water bottles, here's how mine went:

Very impressive, don't you think?  It takes a
long time to hand wash all those suckers
(haha, more fun puns).

What a difference a week can make.  This time last Sunday, the sky was grey, my mood was grey, and I was spent.  But today, with even more mileage added to my weekend than last, I feel awesome.  The worst part about my weekend: I think I may have killed my right 2nd toenail for the 47th time.  And that's totally ok, I've obviously survived without it before (trick for first time toenail murderers: you can still paint the toe without the nail after it departs from your toe!  This may be suspect for guys though...).  What made this weekend so awesome and amazing?  Let's recap the past 36 hours:

Saturday Morning:
I woke up at 6:45, not quite sure how I felt about it being time for my longest training run of the marathon season.  For the 3 hour run, I didn't know what my mileage would be, but I was hoping for something between 18 and 19 miles (note: my LLS Team in Training team trains based on time instead of mileage, this way all of the many people who attend practices with their wide variety of paces finish at the same time--and slower paced people don't inevitably have to run for a WAY longer time than faster paced people), and I was unsure about how my body was feeling.  My sour mood was vastly improved after Monday's rest and Tuesday's interval run with Team.  I had pushed hard through the intervals, finished strong, and felt great.  According to our coaching schedule, this was supposed to be a tempo run, but I like intervals way better so I did steady increasing and then decreasing intervals instead.  I know...I'm a rebel.  Watch out for your children.

Starting off Saturday morning's run, I didn't know how I'd feel, but I had high hopes.  In the past, my longest training runs of the season have felt great.  And I am happy to report that I did not break that streak with this weekend's run.  My running buddy Erica and I started off trying to keep at a steady 9:30 pace.  We knew we had a long way to go and wanted to stay strong throughout.  This is one of the most challenging parts of long runs for us.  We tend to want to speed up, go fast, and get through it.  We're getting better at constantly checking our watches and keeping each other in pace.  Here's how the run turned out:

Obviously, we failed at keeping a 9:30 pace, but by setting our sights at 9:30, we at least kept ourselves above 9 for most of the run.  Mile 4 and Mile 15 happened due to a TNT water stop being manned by one of our favorite former Teammates.  We had to stop and chat (and refuel) for just a bit.  Mile 17 was a not-so-obliging stop light.  However, the sub-9 minute pace the last few miles shows that we conserved our energy well and didn't overtire ourselves at the beginning.

Erica and I are pretty awesome at being running buddies.  First and most importantly because we are both comfortably the same pace.  And at that pace, I think we push each other to go a little bit faster or work a little bit harder than we may have by ourselves.  We also keep each other distracted through an entire run (even a 3 hour one) with awesomely important conversations about things like boys, work, cycling, running, and wine.  We are both generally positive people, but allow each other to be negative nancys when the time calls for it.  And when it comes to getting through a tough or long run, it's extremely important to have a good, solid running buddy there at your side.

Lately, as runs have gotten longer and we have more time to kill, Erica and I have also gotten really good at taking mid-run pictures.  We've learned that pictures attempted from front view while simultaneously running never end up super attractive.

Yet I still post them on the internet.

We've also learned that in order to get a good "running" picture, you have to take multiple shots at a time.  This is due to the unfortunate effects of gravity on your body at different points in your stride.  Let me elaborate.  Here is tall, skinny Tessa at the top of her stride:

TNT gives us "bibs" to wear for our longest
run to acknowledge the hard work that goes
into it.  Just in case you were wondering.

And here is medium-sized Tessa mid-stride:

These pictures have a weird quality to them
because it was just too awesomely sunny
yesterday (or it could be the fact that the
picture lens was covered in sweat from being in
my back pocket throughout the run, maybe)

And finally, short, squat Tessa and the bottom of her stride:

I promise I am running here even though it
looks like I'm just doing a lopsided squat.

And to prove my point even further, here is another series that demonstrates the phenomenon from the back side.

Yay, super stretched skinny Tessa!

Medium-sized, normal Tessa.

Boo, wide and boxy Tessa :(

Aren't you glad I can teach you these lessons for when you decide to start taking mid-run pictures?  Now you know the trick: look for the top of the stride for the skinniest, most internet friendly sharable version of yourself.  You're welcome.

After much conversation, picture taking, and running, we made it to the end where we were greeted by our finish line TNT cheering squad and awarded "medals" for completing the longest run of the season.

More picture taking advice: do not put your
hands awkwardly on your hips because you
don't know what do to with them in a picture
by yourself.

After this run, I listened to my legs, and they told me "we feel great, thanks for not abusing us today!"  Which is pretty amazing after a 19.26 mile run--yep that 18-19 miles I was aiming for, blew them out of the water.  And so, after a very tasty BBQ put on by some fellow teammates, I went home feeling pretty great.

Saturday Afternoon:

I got home from the run and took the obligatory ice bath.  When I describe my legs as feeling "great" after a run, this doesn't mean they aren't hurting.  I can't expect them to be 100% after carrying me through 19+ ground pounding miles.  The ice bath is still highly necessary, especially if I wanted to survived another 40 miles on the bike on Sunday.

You might be sick of ice bath pictures after
last week's post, but I was quite proud of
the symmetry I created in this image. So
professional.

After that, I took Lucy for a 1+ hour walk and observed some very pretty neighborhood flowers.

Look at the color in this picture.  It's because
I'm an awesome photographer, and not
because the owner of this home is really
good at planting colorful plants.

I also found a house that seems to have sunken into the ground.

That may or may not be my headphones
cable in the bottom left of the picture.  I am
still an awesome photographer.

When we got home, Lucy and I took a 20 minute power nap together.

Yes, she is completely restricting all leg
movement.  She's just too cute to move.

Saturday Night:

After fighting the desire to stay snuggled on the couch with Lucy, I decided to be social and grab some drinks at the Boxcar with some old Magnolia friends that it's been embarrassingly too long since I've seen.  It was Cinco de Mayo after all and there were some Coronas that needed imbibing.  But I was still a good girl and was home in bed by midnight, ready to rest up for the next day's adventure.

Sunday Morning into Afternoon:

Because everyone should have at least one day a week to sleep in, my fellow cyclists and I (ha, weird, am I officially a cyclist yet?  Not sure I've put in ample time on the bike yet...) have graced ourselves with an 11:00 Sunday start time.  So I woke up around 9 (after waking up at 5, and then 6:30, and then 7, and then 8:00, all the while forcing myself to go back to sleep), leisurely ate some breakfast, drank some coffee, and got ready for the ride.  Lucy decided she wanted to break my heart just a little this morning as I got dressed and put on shoes for the ride by crying just a little, and looking longingly up at the wall where her leash hangs.  I gave her many hugs, pets, and treats and promised a long walk when I got back, which I sincerely hoped I could follow through on.  It was extremely hard to close the door on those pathetically disappointed puppy dog eyes.

Funnily enough, this week we to decided to meet and ride from the same spot as our Saturday run.  However, it took the same amount of time to ride about twice as far on the bike.  It was a beautiful, sunny, warm (for Seattle standards) day--a great day for a nice, flat bike ride up to Red Hook Brewery.  We took the Burke-Gilman trail 20 miles up to the brewery, and I was super happy that I had put some lengthy time on the bike before this ride.  Except a brand new 2 mile section, the Burke-Gilman is really bumpy.  This doesn't really bode well for anything regularly making contact with the seat.  But now that I have a little more "seat time" under my belt and I've developed those oh-so-necessary core muscle to lift myself off the seat when necessary, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

We of course couldn't ride to Red Hook Brewery without stopping for a meal and a beer.

The awesome thing about cycling is that you can stop and
eat (real food!) in the middle and then hop back on the bike
for more.  This absolutely cannot happen when running.

We were not the only ones to have this
awesome idea (this was just one of 2 sets
of overloaded bike racks at the brewery).

We then rode the 20 miles back to Gasworks Park where we had started and took the obligatory, "we did it!" picture to post on Facebook.

Yay, 40 miler #2!

And again, my legs said "we feel awesome!  Thanks for not abusing us again!  No ice bath necessary today, thank you."  Which was very nice of them to say because ice baths really aren't that fun.  In fact, as I finished up the ride, my legs were thinking to themselves "we could have gone just a little farther today if you wanted us to," which was also great because they've never thought that at the end of a bike ride before.  

Sunday Evening:

I was excited to come home from the ride on happy legs so I could give Lucy the long walk I promised her earlier in the day.  We walked for an hour, and now she's sleeping curled up at my side.

And now, I sit happily writing and eating cheese (damn you Fred Meyer for selling mini cut blocks of delicious craft cheeses perfect for single people like me).  And as I relive the weekend, I keep thinking about how different I am feeling from this exact time one week ago.  Last weekend, I entered the week feeling grey and disappointed in myself, but today, I leave my weekend behind feeling pink and ready to go (I think pink is the color for happy--I tried other colors, but yellow makes me sound jaundiced and orange just sounds weird).  

I leave this weekend behind me with 2 new firsts under my belt.  My longest distance training run ever and my first bike ride where I felt pretty good at the end.  Not too shabby for the last 36 hours.  Like I said on Monday, sometimes bad days and bad runs and bad bike rides happen.  But it doesn't mean the world has given up on me.  It's just preparing me so that I can truly enjoy the really great things that lie ahead.  So smile a pink smile for yourself today, because the greyer things may get, the pinker they'll be when your time arrives.