Party Central...and a 10-mile Run

Happy Birthday to my big boy!

It's Sunday and we've had a pretty nice weekend so far. Yesterday was the big day, Marek's 6th birthday and party. I spent the morning running final errands and had a half-pound of Hawaiian style poke from Costco for lunch.

We got the party started in the late afternoon and I ate handfuls of snacks here and there, drank a couple-few glasses of wine, had a slice of birthday cake and a scoop (or two) of gelato. Not sure what all this added up to Point-wise but I just went with 20. Truth be told it was probably more than that but I'm happy. The party was a blast, laid back and casual, just like we like it. I didn't really have dinner to speak of and ended up having a small snack of cereal after the kids were in bed, which I tracked.

Today was my planned 10-mile run. It was also to be a two-birthday party day (as guests). I'm finally learning and earlier this week realized it was too much to squeeze into one day. So I bowed out of one of the parties (to which, as fate would have it, I'd actually forgotten to RSVP in the first place). I had a sitter for my run at 10am this morning but it was 9am and I was barely moving... I pushed it to 11am. By the time I got out the door it was 11:30am. The weather was beautiful, maybe a shade warm for a long run, leaving a bit earlier in the day would have been ideal.

Last weekend I ran roughly 8.5 miles and the last part of that run hurt. Adding 1.5 miles is a big jump in only one week. But I have a half-marathon coming up in only two weeks and if it's going to happen, I need to push the norm. Today's run was mildly uncomfortable most of the time with moments of painful, and feel-good running, mixed in. I watched my pace, starting in the 12:30 range and eventually moving down into the 11:30 range, even close to 11 for mile 9, I think, but my Garmin crashed and I'm doing a hard-reset so I think I lost the details. I still have have the summary, which is I ran 10 miles in an average 11:39 pace for a total time of 1:56:29. Honestly, anything with an 11: in front of it makes me happy.

But did I mention it was a bit painful? When I stopped running I felt as though all my muscles would seize up. Ouch. I stretched a bit and then straight into the shower, we were already running late to the birthday party. I took a Fage and fruit salad to eat there and also had a few of the snacks at the party. including a couple bite sized cheesecakes, but skipped the wine and cake. I started feeling a bit of nausea, which passed before too long. I tracked all the party snacks as 10 points. I got home and chased the hungry feeling with a bowl of cereal and then a granola bar. Dinner was homemade chicken noodle soup with crackers and I finally feel full.

Last night I swore I'd go to bed early. I didn't. Tonight I'm serious. I thought about sleep during my run, how I'm being foolish to slack on sleep when I'm pushing the miles while at the same time getting back into strength training at the gym. This is a recipe for getting sick or just feeling burned out. I have no excuse to stay up past 10pm tonight.