20:20 Weekend

I find it funny that, after running 20 miles, I am able to quickly shovel a bit of food into my mouth, shower, and head off to a day full of baseball ceremony and games. The act of fitting the long run in where ever life will allow has been my routine for so long. It does not allow for naps. Often, it does not allow for stretching either.

Coming off the series of calf injuries, I made to time to stretch, although not right away. Stretching was finally fit in from the sidelines of YaYa’s 1st baseball game of the season — right after assessing the damage of a wiffle-ball-to-eye accident during pre-game warm ups. Thankfully, those wiffle balls are pretty tame compared to the real deal. YaYa was ready to go by the 1st pitch.

And…as you might have guessed, my time of the bleachers was not exactly comfortable. Then again, are bleachers ever comfortable? My sources say “NOT!”

As you might imagine, I was thrilled to have finally gone the scheduled distance. Now is when it matters. It’s peak training for those of us heading off to Boston next month.

It’s not everyday one is able to enjoy 20 miles of solitude and sweat. I sure felt lucky that this was my day for a little success. Following the many trials-of-training on my path to Boston, this run was surely reason to smile. The cool breeze and sunny skies were pretty another.

I’ve a feeling that my ability to get on with my day in the full-steam-ahead manner post-20 miler had a lot to do with the high resulting from successfully getting back on track for my big race. Because, after riding the same distance on my bicycle today, I crawled into bed immediately after a quick stretch and shower. I napped for nearly 2 hours and awoke feeling like I needed twice as much more rest.

Twenty miles of running and 20 miles of cycling: No matter which way you look at it, that’s pretty darn cool.