My plan for Saturday was to do some speedwork, specifically 8 Yasso 800's. This is also a bit of an endurance workout for me as the warm-up, cool down, half-mile repeats and recovery intervals add up to about 9 miles. During my warm-up jog to the track, I was somewhat concerned that I just didn't seem to have any juice. But, I figured my legs would wake up once I upped the intensity. I became much more concerned when my first 800 felt hard. This is only the beginning - it should be cake! After my second 800, I conceded that, not only had my legs not awakened, but no part of my body was cooperating. I had nothin'.

Then I realize that, just 6 days earlier, I had done a 5-hour trail run. For me, this is a monumental undertaking. For Paul, that kind of run is pretty standard. And therein lies the danger of sharing your life with an ultrarunner. Paul suggested, "Maybe you need more protein to help you recover." I'm thinking, "Maybe I need more TIME to help me recover!" Five hours of running is like running a marathon (okay, for some people, two marathons) and, not even a week later, I expected to do a quality, 8-mile speed workout?!?

When your husband runs 22 miles round-trip to work and you have multiple friends who have run 100-mile races, it's easy to forget that you are just...normal. Normal is not bad. Normal just means that I need to follow certain commonsense rules to stay healthy and injury-free. Things like starting my marathon training 3 months ago (Paul started last week); gradually building up mileage (Paul can pretty much jump right in at 20 miles); taking one rest day each week (Paul occasionally takes a day off if he needs to catch up on sleep). But, we're a great pair. He inspires and amazes me every day...and I keep him connected to the normal people.

So, Saturday turned out to be a fairly slow 4.5-mile day. The remainder of the weekend brought rest, as well as lots of motivation. On Saturday, I watched bits of the Hawaii Ironman live online and then, on Sunday, volunteered at the Tinfoilman race. The Tri Girls were out in full force (and lots of purple) and I had a blast cheering them on!