Zzzzz...

We barely got a dusting of snow last night so I didn't get the delayed start I was hoping for this morning. And I feel pretty tired. I suppose doing nothing all afternoon yesterday is contributing to that. My good news is that my legs have mostly recovered from my long run on Saturday morning. I got up earlier than I have as of yet on a Saturday to knock out a 22-mile training run. It went a lot better than I was anticipating but boy was it far. Upon reaching mile 11, south of Old Town Alexandria on the Mount Vernon Trail, I was feeling on top of the world. I came back up, through Old Town before taking my first walk break. It wasn't until I was well on my way back out of Old Town when the wind really picked up. This kind of killed my motivation, particularly trying to run headlong into it on the Four Mile Run portion of my route. It got to a point where it was a more efficient use of my energy to walk into the wind then to run. During the last 2 miles however the wind was mostly at my back which helped. I didn't have most of the pain I had the last time I tried to do a 20 miler which was refreshing, however, when I got close to home I decided I'd had enough and quit with 0.6 miles left to go. I think the wind blew my spirit away. Regardless I am toting this run as a blazing success. Yes, my legs were tired and my hips a bit sore for most of Sunday but I had no shin or foot pain to speak of, which is amazing. In two weeks I'll repeat this run as my last long effort before the marathon followed by two weeks of tapering. It feels so close now! I realize that during the race I can't just cut off 6 tenths of a mile if I feel like it so I'm hoping my motivation will push me through.

It was nice to have the extra day off for the holiday yesterday. I got up and ran some errands before enjoying an afternoon on the couch. I picked up a bunch of frames at Michael's to finish off the decorating of the bathrooms. I made out like a bandit too. All of their home collection frames were 40% off and I had a coupon for 25% off of all frames on top of that. I got a 16 x 20", two 11 x 14" and one 8 x 10" frames of very good quality for around $50. Now I just have to print the art I created and get it up on the walls.

On a side note, I picked up a new toy for Dublin while I was at Target. It's one of those Loofa Dog toys pictured here except ours is purple. I have never seen her get so excited about a toy. Granted I know it won't last long as the dog has already lost 1 ear and half of the other ear. Still the squeaker in the body sounds more like a duck than her other toys and I think that's why she likes it so much. If it lasts more than a month I'll consider getting her another one I suppose.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I ate way too much bad food this weekend but something about running 21.4 miles makes that not seem like such a bad thing.

images from here and here