Action packed Weekend!

As you can probably tell from my last blog post, or my lack of current posts, I am not finding time to post anymore.  It is wierd, but working a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job as left me feeling like I have less time than I did when I was working in retail working 40+ hours a week.  Overall I like having a set schedule, and I am loving my weekends of "freedom."  I use the term freedom lightly since every weekend since I have started this job we have had something going on.  Whether  that something is races or training, or finding time for chores.  I seriously don't know how I am going to handle grocery shopping on the weekends!!

Anyway, this past weekend was no different.  An action packed, not time to rest weekend.  Not that I am complaining, it was an awesome weekend!  On Friday night after work I ran a couple of errands, came home, ate dinner and went to bed.  Saturday morning I did a 5k with two friends.  I woke up at 5am, did the usual pre-race breakfast of coffee, and a wheat bagel with peanut butter.  I let the pugs out, got dressed and headed out to pick up the girls.  We drove to downtown Houston, parked and got to the race around 7:00--start time was 7:30.

I actually prefer running longer distances, so I am not sure why I signed up for this race.  Other than my friends were doing it as well, and I was having an urge to run a race. Otherwise, what is all this running around my neighborhood for??  I decided that I needed to do a couple of warm-up laps since I typically don't get into a good groove until 3-4 miles into a run anyway.  I remember being at one of my first races and seeing people doing this and thinking, man they are crazy, we are about to run a race, why WOULD they run before we start?  Funny how I am one of those crazies now.  After the warm up, we headed to the start, where we spotted pace group signs.  I have never seen pace groups at a 5k before, and sine I didn't have Jeff there to pace me, I decided to take advantage.  I lined up right behind the 8 min mile group.  This plan worked well for me.  I kept a steady pace of 8:16 the whole race, and had a PR by 5 seconds.  I felt good the whole race, and could have maybe even pushed a little harder.  Overall a great start to the weekend.

On Sunday, one of the girls that ran the 5k with me and I, and one of her friends signed up to do a super sprint relay.  Somehow I ended up volunteering myself for the swimming portion of this race.  It was only a 200m swim, so I wasn't too worried about it, though I did get a little nervous before the race.  I could have worn a wet suit for this race, but really didn't feel like dealing with it for only 200m.  Plus I have another sprint coming up in June, which will not be wet suit legal, so I wanted to get a feel for open water swimming without one.  This was also my first true mass start (in Galveston we got to jump in the water ahead of time and stake out our spots).  I am glad I got to experience this before June.  I got kicked, grabbed, whacked, and whatever else happens out there. This threw me a little off, and it took me a minute to get a good groove going.  At one point I had to kick someone off of me who kept grabbing my foot.  I did ok, but was tired at the end of the swim.  As a relay team we did awesome, and took 3rd place in the relay division!  This swim was an eye opener for me, and  I will definitely be swimming 3 times a week until my next race, or I will not be surviving the 600m.  Actually I guess I am going to have to start training in all three areas, not just running if I am really going to give this sport a shot.

In between all of this.  I went to celebrate two birthdays with good friends, got a pedicure, went grocery shopping, went to a sign making party for Ironman, and went to dinner and a movie.  It was a busy but great weekend!  Hoping I can figure out this schedule thing soon!!