The rest…

So on Thursday Ali had to go to work, I had taken off the entire week.  I had predetermined I was going to bust my ass to get pretty much all normal weekend chores done in that single day.  There was one problem, I was lacking the motivation to do so.

Several times throughout the day I had to kick start my internal engine to just get the stuff done.  I had no issue getting to everything, even with my breaks.  I also had the time to do the first of several automotive maintenance chores on the schedule by changing the oil in the Tacoma.

Ali often complains about the weekly chores and my insistence on knocking them out first instead of last.  The reality is that if you bust it, pretty much everything can be wrapped up in the span of a couple hours (if you don’t have to mow the grass)

Hell I even had the time/energy to knock out a normal mode attempt for this month’s Bar-barian challenge.  I surprised myself by grinding out 11 layers + 8 reps for a total of 74 pull ups.

When she got home Thursday she did the first part of my birthday cake prep.  This is one of the few remaining things I like about birthdays at this point.  The cake is so good.

So I wanted to keep my Friday pretty devoid of work since it was my birthday.  I did wind up spending a good portion of the first part of the day doing errands which kept me busy up until mid after-noon.

I tried to just relax until Ali got home by playing some WoW.  I also decided a bar-baric mode attempt of the challenge would be appropriate since it featured muscle ups, the body weight skill I finally pulled off this year.

I told Ali I wasn’t interested in going out to dinner for my birthday, especially after just getting back from NYC.  Instead we enjoyed a pizza, tivo and chocolate cake session that was just fine by me.

I got some cool gifts including a 1/18th scale silver SSR model from Mike & Suzanne and temporary seat covers that I can use in the SSR for those days I take it to the gym and emerge with a sweaty back.

Saturday morning we had our second race to time in as many weeks.  Thankfully it is the last race we have to time for around a month.  I’m glad.

The race had less turnout than last year’s event but that has pretty much been the case for almost every race this year, attendance is down.  Once again the newspaper guys snapped my picture a couple times and posted it in the paper.  They like me because I get them race results instantly, a luxury they never used to have.

Ali ran the the tough course again this year and had a decent time without really trying to push her pace. This race is unique in our area since it actually has hills.  When Marco Island was built decades ago much of it was built on top of shell mounds that transformed into hills.  The race has a total of 17 hills.

The finish of the race this year was extremely tight.  It came down to the guy that won the Shark Shootout the week prior and some elite high school cross country kid.  The kid nosed out a win at the very end, winning by a very slim ONE second.

We were packed up and out of there somewhere around 9:30.

When we got home Ali helped me unpack and put stuff away before we ate lunch.  After eating lunch she retired to the bedroom for a nearly all afternoon long nap.  I filled the time finishing up race work, playing some WoW and changing the oil in the Camry.

Saturday night we hung at home and caught up on some more Tivo programming.

Sunday morning Ali made arrangements to run with Christy and Michelle.  Sometime during the day Saturday I got the idea in my head that I wanted to try to do the brick that I epically failed at a few months prior.  It involved first a bike ride to the water park (16+ miles) and then running the big square outside the park which is almost exactly 10k (6+ miles) in distance.

When I tried this before I broke down and walked an unheard of 4 or 5 times.  It was really frustrating.

Well although I have not been doing all that much biking or running recently I had now placed this as my objective for Sunday.  I coordinated things with Ali that she would leave ahead of me and park the car at the water park so I could use it to transition into running gear.

Even with using the car I still wound up slinging a back pack on my shoulders to carry my running sneakers, goo, Gatorade and some other stuff.  My plan was to stash the water bottle at about the halfway point of the run during my bike ride in.

The bike ride got progressively tougher as it wore on.  It was climaxed by turning right into a really strong head wind on Livingston Road.  The wind knocked my speed down by 25%, it was brutal.  I pulled into the park sucking major wind, I hoped I didn’t use up too much energy on the ride.  I certainly didn’t want to gas on the run again.

So after a change into running shorts, sucking down a Goo and rehydrating I headed out via foot.  I didn’t feel real great at first, I questioned if I was going to be able to beat the brick that beat me once already.

As I reached around the 1 mile mark I felt better.  My stride was normalized and a couple checks of my GPS indicated I was running in the low 9 minute mile pace which was just fine.

As I reached the halfway point where my Gatorade was stashed I stopped only briefly to grab it and take a few big gulps.  The much cooler temps for the run (low 60’s) definitely were helping me feel better.  I ran the rest of the way carrying the bottle which was a bit annoying but it was nice to have hydration in hand during the second half of the run when things got tougher.

As I continued past points where I had stopped to walk prior I felt even more resolve to continue on.  More than once I reminded myself that I did a Tough f’in Mudder, this brick isn’t shit in comparison.  That sort of inner chat helped me keep my pace steady and strong.

I triumphantly stopped my watch as I crossed my imaginary finish line.  My time of 58:51 translated into about a 9:20 pace, not bad at all for a run after a hard bike ride.

Ali had run less distance with the girls than planned and had actually come back to the water park early.  She put in some additional miles there to get closer to her original 10 mile target.

The Eagles didn’t play until 4:15 so we had some spare time in the afternoon.  Ali had some Xmas gifts she wanted to pick up so that was a good excuse to take out the SSR.  We made about three or four stops while we enjoyed cruising topless.  It’s so awesome.

The Eagles continued their incredibly inconsistent season, once again appearing to be world beaters, embarrassing the Jets 45-19.  They actually are not mathematically eliminated yet.  They have an outside chance to win the awful NFC East if they win out and the Giants lose one of their two final games.

Wow can you imagine if they actually make the playoffs? Me either.