Rollin'

ahhhhh . . .

This week has been pretty good!

Courtney is getting close, and I mean really close to her due date. So we are both in overdrive to get the house in order. That includes cleaning, and wrapping up projects big and small.


I took the past two days off from work to make some headway on our master bath. I had ripped out the old two piece tub/shower enclosure and was going to replace it with a one piece tub unit and a tile surround, only to later decide that a shower would be more prudent . . . unfortunately that meant more work - plumbing needed redone and the walls were waaay out of true. Well, after procrastinating for about two months (while the old tub was ripped out mind you) I got some help with the plumbing, and I finally took a couple days off and got most of the tough stuff out of the way - trued the walls as close as one could get and set the tileable shower base with the help of my Uncle Dominic.


Three days this week, including two of the days I was off from work, I accomplished some very nice running. Tuesday is our Second Sole Strider Racing Team track workout night. Coach Peter Quigg had us on 400's - I logged 10 in 77-79 pace with 200 meter recovery - about 5 seconds faster each than I had done earlier this month for the same workout (with two more repeats too).


Next on Wednesday, I ran to the Second Sole for our weekly club run - about 3 miles to the shop, and then 5.8 miles on our club run - I went out conservative, but then Adam Gent caught up with me and we cranked it: last three or four under 7 and last two miles in the low six's! The three mile run back home was kinda tough (hurting at 7:30 pace) but I managed to make it back for a total of 13 miles that day - the farthest I've run since back in high school?


Finally, yesterday I was gonna take it easy on a six miler due to the distance I ran the previous day, but my legs felt good, and I just started rollin'. My first mile was 6:24, felt easy, second mile 6:04 - no sweat, third 6:10 (19:14 5k split), Fourth 6:24 flagged a little since I was pushing for that sub 20 5K split, Fifth - 6:10 or so, sixth 6:02, 10k split at 38 and change - less than a minute withing my 2nd fastests 10K and my average heartrate was only 163 about 80% of max I think. (link to workout data)


I'm suprised with my times and progress this week--these really felt good. I do think the Tuesday track sessions are helping! I wonder if my taking off work, i.e. not sitting in a chair for 8 hours those past two days helped in any way?


I am just thankful to God for having the ability to do these things - Courtney and baby Caroline Leigh are doing good, I've made progress on my daunting house project, and my running is picking up again. Top that off with a wonderful family extended and immediate (thanks for throwing a great baby shower Mom!) and things are looking real good. Now if I could only kick the bicycle shopping habit . . .