Weekend Wrap-up

So Fred (that's my dad) calls Friday morning at 9:05 a.m.

Fred: "We are thinking about coming to visit this weekend"
Me: "This weekend, this weekend as in today???"
Fred: "Well tomorrow morning but yeah, you know to do some shopping"
Me: "Seriously?!? Um, well, thanks for the notice see you tomorrow I guess"

Fast forward 2 hours to me frantically cleaning my house and catching up on 2 weeks of laundry. Luckily I didn't have a full day of work or weekend plans. Well I did have plans so they had to be cancelled. No big deal. it's family. Plus when family comes to visit you eat delicious meals at nice restaurants :) Unfortunately it also meant walking around Michigan Avenue on a Saturday during the holidays in the cold. Love those crowds.

Saturday morning was my 20 mile training run. Haven't done one of those, since, well...the Chicago Fun Run. I'm not even sure if I made it to 20 then (I think I did). I knew I could finish but I can't tell ya I wasn't nervous. It was freaking freezing once I got my butt out of the warm bed and out the door. It is getting more difficult to complete the Saturday morning long runs with the colder weather and leaving a warm bed. Only 3 more Saturday's before race day - then warm bed I'm here I come. I started my cool down just as Fred called to say they were on Lakeshore drive. Nice timing. Especially since I he gave me no idea as to when to expect him and the wifey.

The run itself - not so bad. Another long run and my left hip continued to hurt like hell. And for the majority of the run. At mile 4.5 I was bored and started doing math to help pass the time. There is something about running and math, I just can't do them at the same time. At mile 10 I felt like I could have finished a marathon. It was good running weather and I was feeling like an incredible superstar runner. Maybe it was the new snack I tried at mile 10 that gave me this false sense of running security. I tried the new Luna Blueberry Moons (energy chews). I recommend them highly. They are easy to eat on the run and provide just as much energy as
GU. At mile 12.5 I was thinking hmm...not so much. Then at 18 and 19 I felt better than I did at 15 and 16. Even posted faster miles. Overall I averaged 9:51 min/mile. Definitely not a stellar time but I'll take it.

I'm still sore today. I am in the process of trying to motivate myself to go to the gym for some cross training action. We'll see...the couch and my dvr are calling to me too :)