The long weekend end is near

It was nice having Monday after the 4th off of work. Added bonus - a much nicer day outside than Friday :) Not much happening on my day off; slept in (of course), went to lunch with the hubbie, made a much needed trip to a nearly empty Target (over $200 later on what I'm not sure), laundry, worked out, and read my Runner's World on the front porch. Overall a nice day off after a fun weekend. I love long weekends!

Once again I found myself putting off the long run. It took until Sunday night to lace up the shoes. Both Friday and Saturday found us "partying" in the suburbs. More like sitting around drinking in the suburbs on decks and patios. Friday night we went to see our friends new gorgeous home. Since we were celebrating the holiday and the new place I may or may not have mixed beer, champagne, and margaritas. oye... not a good idea. Saturday I woke up early but decided to forgo the long run until Sunday morning thanks to the mixture from the night before and the crappy weather. Instead I tried out the suggested at home strength workout in the Advance Marathoning book because I didn't want to be a total lazy bum. I worked up a sweat but didn't find it impossible/unable to finish while performing the exercises which had me feeling good.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to our other friends place in the 'burbs and had some delicious ribs as well as a few more beers and intense games of bags (in the drizzle) and bananagrams. Bananagrams only sounds dirty ;) Another late night had me waking up even later on Sunday. I felt fine after drinking however my butt muscles were BURNING! Here I was thinking the at home strength training from A.M. wasn't too bad and I find myself in pain less than 24 hours later. Guess I worked some muscles I haven't been hitting at the gym!

After putting planned 13 miles off all weekend I finally headed out around 4:30 pm on Sunday. The weather was nice however trying to dodge all the people wrapping up their holiday celebrations along the lakefront was not so nice. I had absolutely no problems keeping the long slow pace thanks to my delayed onset soreness and general lethargy from the weekend. I felt relatively good the first 6 miles then my butt started to burn. Never again will I do new strength training moves the day before a long run! I also tried clif shot bloks for the first time. Much nicer on the tummy than gels and the cran-raz is pretty dang tasty as far as gels/blocks go. I was happy they were easy to chew and didn't get stuck on my teeth like the luna moons. I'm looking forward to see how they treat me on the longer distances.

Tuesday is back to the weekly grind. Headed down to Dallas for the week, back to Chicago for a night then home to Cleveland on Friday to visit my dad. It's going to be a long, short week :)