New Week, Hopefully Less Chaos

What a week! Each time I had the time/energy/willpower to sit down and update my blog, something else came along to distract me and it just didn’t get done until today. A quick recap:

Wednesday afternoon I found out that the proposal that I thought was due in electronic form on Friday afternoon was in fact due in hard copy form by 3:00 on Friday. This basically moved up the timeline by 24 hours because we had to FedEx everything to both the client and their consultant. Doh! So Wednesday was spent getting the document done and off to the final editing process, which took me until almost 8 PM. That pretty much shot any chance of running that night because by the time I got home and got some dinner, etc, it was 9:00. Thursday was spent getting the proposal ready to go, which didn’t happen until after 5 PM. I had to take Annie to Bel Air that night, so my co-worker had to make the final edits and then drop the packages off at FedEx when everything was finally done at 7:30. Because Annie and I didn’t get back until after 8, running again was pushed off. Also, it was the WVU-Maryland game Thursday night so I had to watch my Mountaineers handle the Terps. It’s too bad that they don’t play again until 2010 because it’s always great to see Maryland lose at the hands of WVU.

So, Friday was really the first day I had that was conducive to running. I left work about 6 PM and got my 3.85 miles in just fine. My legs felt sluggish from the several days off. I ran the first mile at 6.0 mph (10:00 min/mile) and then ran the next 2.10 miles at 6.2 mph (9:40 min/mile) before ramping it up to 6.5 mph by the end. I want to start pushing the speed a little each week to try to get some more speed out of my body before the winter hits. I also want to get my 5K time down to something respectable for my age group (something under 25 minutes would be ideal but that’s several months off, I think).

This weekend we had to go to a wedding for one of her friend’s from graduate school, and Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. Since she had a rehearsal herself from 6-9 PM, I was able to run and shower, etc without being hurried. Saturday was the wedding, but it wasn’t until the afternoon and we weren’t going to the ceremony anyway because Annie had her performance at the same time. Anyway, some of her friends were in town and she met them for lunch before getting ready for the performance. That meant I had the afternoon to myself, which I used to get my long run. I did my prescribed 6.6 miles at a leisurely pace of about 10:30 min/mile. I listened to the latest episode of “This American Life,” which helped the time pass. No real problems since I kept the speed down. Because of the time off, though, my legs were very tired by the time we went to the reception that night. I should have run earlier in the morning so I had more time in the afternoon to rest my legs because I only was able to sit down for about 90 minutes after my run before having to get a shower and then do the 15 minute walk to the performance. Then I walked back, changed into my suit and we went to the reception, which involved sitting for dinner but then dancing, etc. Needless to say, by the time we left last night, my legs were ready to rest for about a day!

Today is a prescribed rest day since it’s after my long run, so I spent my morning watching “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” one of my favourite Westerns. After getting some work done at the office, I’ve been watching the Ravens dismantle the Jets defense.

Hopefully this week will be much less chaotic and I will be able to refocus on my running and spend less time at the office. Perhaps that will allow me to do more than just update my training schedule here and actually write about some running topics. That will be a goal of mine for tomorrow. I have a few ideas bouncing around in my head.