Tough, but fabulous weekend!

On Friday, I received an e-mail that put a kibosh on my planned 45-minute run. My running partner's daughter was sick, so she had to cancel. I'm not ballsy enough to run downtown by myself. I was a little disappointed with the impromptu day off until the same running partner negotiated with her hubby to allow her to brick with me on Saturday and run with me on Sunday. Woo hoo!

Oh crap though! Her assigned brick was a 3-hour ride followed by 40-minute run. I haven't ridden outside on my tri bike since September and my longest trainer ride has been 1:40. 3 hours? We'll see. We rode out of N. Chagrin at 8 AM. It was a beautiful morning for a ride. I don't know if it was the great weather, wonderful company or fresh legs (was that a 6-month taper?), but I rode amazingly well. Sam did great too! Only the last 5 minutes of the ride and run were tough. Good times! Check out Sam with her new bike.





After the brick, I helped paint our dining room, then crashed for 2 hours. Yes, I forgot what Ironman training does to me - I sleep...a lot. Can't say I miss it, but it was fun to remember with Sam.

I was a little nervous about our planned 2-hour run this morning after yesterday's long workout. We had two fun running partners - Hallie and Gina - join us. (Gina is a blog buddy, who hopefully will now be a running buddy - assuming she enjoyed the run and didn't mind the pace.)

We took off at 9 AM and ran a combination of real trail and bridle trail. It was wet, but not terribly muddy - just a few bad spots. Don't get me wrong - I had mud all over my legs, but my shoes are salvageable. : ) It was a great run and I really enjoyed getting to know Gina in person! I actually held up very well and was able to finish strong.

After the run, we headed to Yours Truly for a breakfast feast. Ah, good times! Here are a couple pictures from breakfast (Gina and me, and Hallie and Sam)