I can’t believe it’s already Sunday afternoon, boy did this weekend fly by!  Friday night was pretty uneventful, I ended up going to bed at 8p due to a migraine I had been battling with all day.  Bummer.  I even missed a charity jewelry and handbag show my cousins were having 😦  Fortunately I know what caused it – the 2 hours of sleep Thursday night (insomnia, argh!), and lack of sleep always usually triggers a migraine the next day.   Hoping to try some new ways to get better sleep because my insomnia (or whatever it is) is reappearing more often than not lately.

Saturday I woke up bright and early and ran a quick 3 miles before heading to a new yoga class.  My legs felt great which was a relief from Thursday’s run, when they were not happy campers.  On to the yoga class, ohmy.  I think it was titled ‘Power Vinyasa’, but most yoga classes I’ve been to are pretty much the same, some in a heated a room, some not, and almost always offer several variations of a pose, so as a rusty yogi, I wasn’t too worried.  I just wanted to get in some good stretching for the Halloween 10k on Sunday and help my IT bands in general.

I was wrong.  All yoga classes are not equal.  At first we did some basic poses but then we started really doing some tough poses which stretched the hips and hamstrings, which was what I wanted, but ohman.  They *really* stretched the hips and hamstrings.  In retrospect I should have really modified the poses, but at the time I was all ‘Oh awesome!  More stretches!  My hips and hamstrings are really going to benefit from this!’.  As if that wasn’t enough, one of the moves we did was a head stand.  We did several variations against the wall (so we didn’t have everyone toppling over each other when one person lost balance), and even with the wall behind you, the focus was to engage your core and not lean against the wall.  I should have sat this one out, but everyone else was doing it… and I took gymnastics as a child (yeah… I’m cringing while typing this)… I can do this!  And I could!  It was great!  We ended with some more meditative poses, and I left the class feeling refreshed.  Plus, the instructor is just an awesome person in general (I have taken her spinning classes before), so that made the class that much more enjoyable.  More on the yoga after effects in a bit…

After yoga I did some cleaning while watching Kona Ironman World Championships, which was streaming live on Ironman’s website.  I decided hooking up my laptop to my tv was a *much* better way to watch it 🙂 Ignore the HDMI cord dangling under the tv, it was the only way to hook up the laptop.

Then I headed to the new running store by my house to check out the store and pick up some new running socks.  I have socks that wick from Target, but have a couple of ‘fancy’ pairs from Nike that I really like and fit much better.  I ruined one of my pairs from the red clay at Redman, and now they just look dirty, even when clean 😦

After the errands I headed to my parents to wait for their new washer to be delivered while they were out of town.  I busied myself with two very awful-yet-so-good Lifetime movies.  I felt like I was very productive.  After the washer was delivered I rushed home to meet JMR and catch the men and women pro’s finish Kona.  Oh boy it was so awesome to watch.  I think JMR was kind of bored, I mean it pretty much is just people running by themselves at that point during the run, not like the ‘sports’ he’s used to, but to me it’s just so amazing to watch.  How do people have the physical ability to swim, bike and run THAT fast?  Mind blowing.  I’m pretty certain that I don’t have the genetic makeup to ever be that fast, so Kona shall remain a dream for me 🙂  They do have lottery spots for individuals that have finished an Ironman event, but would you really want to compete in an event that you didn’t qualify for?  I would not feel very confident toeing the start with the age groupers that did qualify.

Back to this weekend.  JMR and I went to dinner at Lester’s near my house, and I had a so-so chicken sandwich.  I love their reuben sandwich, but figured with a race the next day, that would probably not be the greatest choice to eat.  After having a couple of beers and staying out a bit too late, I crashed around 11.

I woke up promptly at 5a to get ready for the Halloween 10k, and was…. SORE.  So SORE.  Oh good-lawd-I-hurt-to-walk-there’s-no-way-I-can-run sore.  My arms, back, abs (ha, I’ll still call them abs if they aren’t exactly visible), legs freaking hurt!  Headstands now seemed like a terrible idea, and my hamstrings were on fire.  I used the foam roller for a bit, took some ibuprofen and hoped that by the time I got to the race, things would be looking up.  Don’t mind Patrick’s creepy eyes in the picture, he isn’t possessed, the flash did something wonky.

My two favorite pals, Patrick and my Foam roller (and a couple of Patrick’s toys, he’s a slob)

I plan to write my race report shortly, but to fill you in, things didn’t look up much.  On the positive side, the weather was great,  it was so much fun seeing all of the costumes people had on, and no matter how the race went, this is my favorite month and favorite holiday, so I’m glad I got to celebrate it with a run!

Now I’m sitting on the couch vegging (1 mile warmup + 6.2 mile race is enough exercise to warrant sitting on the couch the rest of the day watching tv and taking naps, right?  :)), and that’s the plan for the rest of the day!  Well, that and sitting on ice packs!