ANOTHER "PLAN B" WEEKEND

I know other bloggers out there are complaining about the weather too, and once again the all too familiar rainy/windy/cold (your choice) weekend was upon us.

Saturday was our annual 25k, Fifth Third Riverbank Run. In my previous post, I had said I had decided not to do the race this year for various reasons, and I was SO happy I had made that decision and hadn't backed down from it. Saturday's weather--mainly during the race time--was torrential rain again, even though the weather report that morning from the race site was for "clearing skies but windy." It wasn't even raining then but 5 minutes before the race was to start, I looked out the window, just about ready to start my own run, and it was pouring! My friend Jan had gone ahead and signed up and she said it was worse than the year she did Boston in the Nor'easter. So yeah, it was bad. Not sorry I had to miss out on that.

So I waited around for an hour, busying myself with straightening up around the house, laundry (which never is done), and making a shopping list for later. Surely it would clear up by then. But the rain continued, and not just showery type rain but a hard, steady rain. The wind hadn't really even started yet, but I couldn't quite bring myself to go out in that.

I decided then to do a trainer ride and a short run, figuring if I absolutely had to I could hop on the treadmill. So I cranked out 20 miles, using my training DVD, and as luck would have it, the rain had stopped by the time I got done so had no excuses not to go out and run.

I took my time, however, since I needed to do a full change of clothing to dry outdoor gear, layering because by now the temperature had also dropped AND the wind was making its appearance. But the sun was sort of out. My hair was still soaking wet from sweat, but I just stuck a hat on and headed out.

I expected my legs to be dead, but surprisingly, I made it almost the entire 3 miles without stopping, except to wait for traffic and once when the HR monitor went about 10 beats over my max, just long enough to get it down. I have really been practicing keeping a steady, if slow, running pace to keep the HR from getting out of control and I'm seeing some real improvement.

Now if only I could have a 20 minute transition for every race! I really think it would even itself out--short transition, walk more; long transition, walk less. Hmm, what do you think?

The long run still had to be done, and much as I didn't want to do it on Mother's Day, I got myself out the door and managed to run a slow and not so easy 7 miles. I was feeling the fatigue from the day before I guess, and at one point I wanted to be done in the worst way, but I did push through that and only ended up doing one extra minute of walking on a really long hill near the end.

And I expected this so had turned my phone off--calls from the kids. Couldn't they have called the night before to make plans? I'm not complaining, just saying....

It was a nice Mother's Day. Saw all the kids except one who lives out of state; had to go to the cemetery for my mom; saw my sister; got to see all the moms I needed to and wanted to spend the day with.

Time to now sign up for a couple of more races! Will it be raining? Will it be windy? Will it be cold?