Weekend shenanigans

Happy Father's Day, especially to the two great dads in my life - Ted Lauver, thank you for raising Mark to be one of the best people I know.  And to my own dad - thank you for being such a great father who always made me feel loved.

So this weekend on my ride I learned that bear cubs are very cute but mother bears - not so much.  I was doing the SkyMass ride with my friend and co-worker Kristin and some of her friends and we came around a corner and a black bear and her two cubs had just lumbered across the road and were climbing the hill on the side of the road.  I think my heartrate spiked up pretty high as I took one look and started pedaling like mad to get as far away as possible.  I spent much of the rest of the ride trying not to get dropped and they made me work to keep up.  It was a perfect day for a ride - not too hot and not humid, absolute perfection.  I wouldn't call my T-run off the bike perfection, it was ugly but I got it done.  I then spent about 20 minutes in 7-11 trying to talk myself out of a pint of ben and jerry's frozen yogurt and M&Ms.  Fortunately, common sense prevailed and I left the convenience store with chocolate milk, a banana and some grapes.

This morning I had my long run.  It was less of a mess than last weekend's long run when I already felt like poo before I had even taken one step.  My legs were far less sore after yesterday's SkyMass ride than they were after Culpepper last weekend.  I also got alot of sleep last night (yaaay!!).  So I headed out this morning looking forward to my run instead of dreading it.  This run was a confidence-builder for next month's Ironman, I know I won't feel as good on my Ironman run as I felt today because I didn't exactly bike 112 miles immediately before I headed out this AM in my run shoes - but mentally I felt like I was in a good place and even though my legs felt pretty fatigued by the end, it wasn't overwhelming and could definitely be dealt with on race day.

Highlight of my day - we went out to brunch in Shirlington right after my run (after the obligatory ice bath and 50+ ounces of Gatorade, of course).  I was hungry so I ordered an entree-sized salad, an omelette with a side of homefries, and a plate of pancakes with fruit.  As I was getting ready to order the last plate, the waitress stopped me and asked oh, do you want all of these right now or do you want me to wrap up one of these orders for you to take home?  I told her I wanted them all right now (well, salad first, then everything else).  She obliged and three huge plates of food soon came my way.  And I ate everything in rapid fashion.  As she came to clear off the plates she said I was wondering if you were actually going to eat all that food.  I thought there was no way, but I'm impressed, you proved me wrong.  I'm pretty proud of my ability to pack away three entrees during brunch.  I'm sure this talent will backfire on me sometime when I'm 60 and my metabolism goes kaput, but for now I am fully enjoying it.