Monday, Monday. So good to me.

Last night as my husband and I were talking about our running plans for this morning, he said he wanted to do a long run starting up at the top of Buckskin Rd. (the beginning of the marathon route, elevation of approximately 5000').  I had plans to do my usual 5-6 mile run with my friend Holly, followed by some leg and core circuits.  When I called Holly to finalize our plans, we decided that we would all run down the mountain, and Holly's husband would drive us up to the top on his way to work.  As excited as I was to run there, I knew that meant running a little over 12 miles instead of 5.  I wasn't too sure how my legs would handle it, just a day of recovery since doing that 27 miler.  You know me, though.  I'm always up for a challenge - and a great workout.

So this morning we set out around 5:45.  We were at the top and starting our descent by 6am.  It is impossible to go too slowly on the first 6-7 miles of this particular run.  It is all downhill, winding around like a snake.  Beautiful and serene.  Although I have run there several times, Chris has never run it.  He's usually the one giving us a ride up to the top.  I was so excited for him to be able to experience it.

I set my interval timer to a 4:1 run/walk ratio, but we ended up skipping a couple of the walking breaks just to take advantage of the marvelous downhill.  Chris finished his run, 12.1 miles, with an average pace of 9:49 min/mile.  Holly and I were not too far behind him, finishing with an average pace of 10:06.  I felt like my hamstrings were holding me back from staying with Chris.  He was fresh and rested and took off like crazy.  As I look at our stats from my Garmin, during the running portions in between the walk breaks we did take, we were doing 7 minute miles.  Chris was even in the 6 minute mile range most of the time.  It would be fun to see how fast he could do it if he took out the walk breaks.

Once we were back at our house, Chris drove down to the store and picked up some chocolate milk for all of us, while Holly and I got started on our circuits.  Today we used one of the P90X dvd's, called leg and core synergy, or something along those lines.  I've never done any of the P90X videos - that's some tough stuff!!  It was 50 minutes of non-stop strength combined with cardio and plyometrics moves, all while focusing on stabilizing the core.  No doubt I will be sore tomorrow. :)

Tonight....evening spin class!! Yay.  Spinning makes me happy.