The older two kids went to my mother’s last night, so this morning husband and I had a little bit of a sleep-in with the baby.  It was quite nice, actually.  We all ate breakfast together and after my second coffee, I started to get the itch to go for a run.  It’s been four days since I last ran – the last one was a hill repeat and while my legs felt pretty good, I knew I wanted to try for another 10km this week, so I took a few days off to rest.

After the baby went down for his nap, I set out on my run.  As usual, my legs felt tight for the first few kilometers, and once they loosened up a stupid stitch in my right lower ribcage started nagging me.  Around 5km, I started to need a few extra 20-30 second walk breaks which were annoying and I felt like I wanted to just throw in the towel.  But I kept going, walking and stretching when I needed to.  Then, around 7km, I headed toward a splash pad that I knew had a water fountain and I prayed it was still working.  (Our city closes most water parks after Labour Day.)  To my absolute delight and utter relief, the splash pad was running.  So, not only did I stop for a drink of water, I also ran through the water a few times to cool off.

I felt energized after that and kept going.  The damn side stitch came back though and made the last 2km tough.  It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I beat my first two 10km times by almost 3.5 minutes!  Say whut?!?!  I have no idea how that happened.  I certainly didn’t run a negative split, but I suppose a few faster splits made all the difference.  I also wonder if the hills I’ve been doing once a week may also be helping.  You tell me!

To say I was surprised at my time is a bit of an understatement.  Shocked is more like it.  I felt so incredibly sluggish through most of this run, not to mention having to abandon some of my intervals to walk a bit extra here and there, I feel like I can hardly say this was a solid 10km.  But then again, I did travel a distance of 10 km and overall ran about 85% of it, so I should probably stop beating myself up about it.

Then, about an hour after the run, husband wanted to go for a bike ride with me and the baby.  A couple of friends of ours joined us and we had a fantastic afternoon.  I saw a blue heron, a crazy mudslide, and we rode 21.9 km.

After a much-needed shower, I took a nap.

On this Saturday, records fell, indeed.