Monster Monday

I didn't set out to have a monster day although I do shoot on Mondays to get the week started right. Since I have not done a long straight swim in a couple of weeks, I decided to try to get one of those in. I get more rest than usual on Sunday so if I am going to get up earlier than what is already too early for me, Monday is the day to do it. Hence I set my alarm for 3:30 a.m. Who does that?

I was stroking water at 3:55. My pace was OK but not fast. I got 6,025 before the other guys were there and ready to get in. I had hoped to go north of 6,400 which is what I did exactly two weeks ago. The way I got the distance in then, the pool heater was broken, and I swam in the afternoon. To make a short story long, to do those kind of distances I need to start swimming once a week later in the day.

To complicate matters for the day, my Garmin watch died. It did something weird in the pool, gave me screens I had never seen before throughout the day, and then died like a sick rabbit before running time. Words cannot express how much I love a Garmin. You always know how far you've gone, how long it took you, and what your pace is. Not only that, but you can make your route up as you go. If your legs are feeling good, you can tack on another mile, two miles, or whatever you want.

Back in the day, we had routes which we pre-measured with an automobile. If we deviated from the route, we had to hop in our truck immediately and go see how far we ran, or at least I always did. The advent of GPS watches ended all of that. Now there was the opportunity to be both free and precise at the same time.

Despite running by watch for the past however many years, I still do have some marks, some known distances here and there. Out Money Road, I have some fading old paint marks that I measure with a wheel so I could run intervals and not have to stare at my watch to do it. So I went out that road with a nervous eye on the western sky. I don't like to get too far out there in the dark because hearing the coyotes open up when I am alone in the dark is a little bit unnerving for me. I want four miles out. Then on the way back, I decided to run a gravel road that leads to Wade Road. That added 1.3 miles to the run. Then I knew some blocks to add on the get another .2 miles. To make a short story long, I left the house not knowing how far I would run and wound up with 9.5 miles.

Do the math. When I got home, I had swum over three miles and run over nine. Now the gym was waiting to see if I was going to make this Monday a true monster day. I did it. I went out in the dark with the dogs, and pushed weights until my arms quivered. On the bench I did

12 X 100
10 X 110
  6 X 120
  6 X 130
  6 X 130

On the log, I pressed

8 X 52
5 X 63
3 X 74
1 X 79
1 X 85
missed at 89

Thank you, Jesus. Do I need to tell you that I slept like a hunk of concrete? I did until . . . . I'll tell you about that tomorrow.