Tuesday, April 1, 2008

I love that girl....

Since I have done this blog, I have tried to keep everything running related...but not this entry. I had the most incredible day yesterday....
Yesterday marked my Anniversary to my best friend for 7 years.... it honestly felt like we just had our wedding .... I can still remember my wedding day, which was the first time I actually cried for joy... will never forget that...I didn't even realize I had that emotion in me.
So luckily for me, I usually work a 7-7:30 shift on Monday, but this week, I was able to have someone work for me in the morning, because I have to help out at our other clinic this Thursday. That allowed Kerry, myself and Arjay to go out for breakfast (Adryana was at school). It was just so nice for us to be together and talk/reminisce on everything. At breakfast, we exchanged cards, and as always, my wife wrote the most touching, beautiful things, which makes me feel like a million bucks... she never fails to boost my confidence and make me feel so needed...
Yesterday also happened to be our busiest day ever at our Wesley Chapel clinic... it was steady and it wasn't overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I realized that a lot of people came in for the day. So needless to say, even though it was a shorter day than usual for me, I was pretty tired, and I didn't finish any of my notes. I hate to not finish my notes before I leave work, because it tends to bother me all night... because I feel like I left things not completed for the day. I usually don't sleep too well when that happens. Something told me to go home, and not finish my notes... at that point it was already past 8:00 pm, so if I stayed and finished my notes it would have been close to 8:45 pm before I left the office. So on my way home, I usually talk to my wife, but I had to take care of some work stuff on the phone. When I got home, opened the garage, it was to my surprise that my kids weren't running out to come and greet me. Usually by that time, they have had their bath and are waiting for me to get home. Even better, Kerry was waiting for me, dressed up stunning as usual, and brought me into the kitchen... the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and she had my Ipod playing with some of our favorite songs. She basically made a special dinner for the both of us and made me my favorite foods, which are chicken parmesan, garlic bread and garlic mash potatoes. It was awesome... we also played the song that we danced to at our wedding and we danced together in our kitchen... incredible!!! Just like our wedding...except we know each other even more, love each other even more, and have 2 beautiful kids that are a part of our lives. God is good...and I thank him so much for my wife, who is my backbone, my biggest supporter, and my personal comedian (makes me laugh at least 2x/day). I am so thankful that God allowed me to meet her, and put her in my life.
I also want to say that she didn't pull this off by herself... her best friend, Keveta, took the kids out while we had our dinner, and treated them to McDonalds and had a little field trip to Target at 9:30 at night!!!! It almost felt like we were at a restaurant by ourselves, and then we didn't even have to drive home!!!Thanks Keveta!!! I almost forgot to mention that my daughter made both of us personalized cards that was at our table when we ate... just a fantastic day for me.... Kerry, I love you so much... thank you for a beautiful day yesterday and I hope, God willing, we will be able to celebrate many more of these days together.

Getting back to race form....

Great Run this weekend for me!!!! It capped of my highest mileage week ever at just under 38 miles. The good news is that my body feels great. I feel as though I can get my body to do close to 50 miles per week, if I gradually build myself up to that level... slowly and carefully. I was able to put in 4 miles on Saturday Ivy Lake Easy Run and 12 miles on Sunday before church (Ivy Lake Long Run). I have never attempted to run back to back days with so much mileage, but I believe the key is that I was running fairly slow and controlled. It's amazing how your body bounces back so quickly when you put in low intensity with mileage.
Today, I ran a little less than 8 miles, with approx. 3 of those miles really fast. It is the first time I have done speedwork in over 2 months... and it showed... it was a struggle for me to keep the times that I used to keep when I was training for Disney. Did I say it was hard? It was good to get a gauge on where I am at, and what I should shoot for when I do the Draft Day Dash at the end of this month. I think my goal should be to get under 21:00, which would be about 6:45/mile. I initially thought I might be able to do 20:30, but after today I realized that there is no way I would be able to come close to pulling that off. If everything goes great....I could do under 21 minutes, which would be 2 minutes faster than what I did last year.... that would be awesome!!! So here is the run from this morning.

Map of Ivy Lake Intervals