Spring, 20 miles, & a fat dose of playin' hooky

I planned to take today and tomorrow off. It is SPRING BREAK, and the weather is (finally) nothing short of amazing. Yay - daffodils (it really is the little things people)!

But lo and behold, I got SLAMMED at work this week. The best news was that it was in part some BIG work I originated! :) Sweet. So I have been piling on the hours this week. Long hours, good work.

BUT, we only had child care Monday and Tuesday this week during the boys' spring break. So I unabashedly pawned my kids off on my sister yesterday and worked late. They had an awesome time with their cousins and it was perfect. Sis offered to take them today and John could do Friday. BUT Oh, Hell no! I CAN'T be THAT busy. These are my kids, this is spring break, my name is not "skip." I will be there (even if it means working some on the weekend - I WILL NOT miss spring break).

John and I had already arranged that I would run my last 20 miler this am (he so nicely accommodated my schedule so I could actually "sleep in" and he would stay until 9:30 so I didn't have to do it this weekend). I decided after that I would work at home to save some time. Would I be productive?

Likely not (yep, not really, not). But I can't miss my kid's whole spring break. Deals, litigation, craziness can all wait. And so they did.

Back to the grind tomorrow, but it was FABULOUS taking in my boys today. I was honestly burnt out from them when I went back to work 28ish months ago. Terrible to admit, but true. It's tough being a full time mom. But now, I can't get enough of them. NO WAY I can work while they are in the next room laughing, playing and coaxing me to chase them. Soon enough, they won't have time for me. So my schedule, no matter how important anyone else may characterize it, can wait.

As for my 20 miler. It kicked @ss and yet it didn't. First 10ish miles were awesome. 50 degrees and I was clicking off 9:00 miles with low HR, no problem - even with a very hilly terrain. Last half was harder as it notched into the mid 60s, which I was unaccustomed to, but still had the goal of negative splitting the run and continuing to hit the hills. My HR started sky-rocketing and I worried about pushing too hard, yet at the same time, my body/legs were ready to go. Had to take off the HRM the last 3 miles b/c I was chafing like crazy (told you I wasn't used to this *heat* - interestingly - it shot up to 200 for a mile; then still registered last 2 miles even though I attached it to the outside of my fuel belt -weird!).

Needless to say, I went with how I felt and had a strong run. Ended by a nice, perfect ice bath afterwards (my 7 year old is the master of setting up the perfect ice bath, which I find terrific). Legs are sore, but frankly I feel like a strong old crow right now.

Bring on Boston.