Weekend highs and lows

I'm having a completely lovely weekend, but nothing is perfect. There are two main lows of this weekend.

1. Working at my second job both Saturday and Sunday. It's a great job but let's face it, no one wants to go to work on their two days off.

2. Having to work on a paper that's due Monday.

The list of highs is significantly longer. 

1. Eric cleared up his sinuses using Kari's husband's genius suggestion of a Neti pot. I supervised to make sure he didn't drown, and watched as everything from his nasal passages ended up in the sink. Marriage can be so romantic. This wasn't really a high but I thought the picture was funny and wanted to include it, and I also wanted to let any young ladies who are in a new relationship know what they will have to look forward to down the line.

Please try not to be jealous of our amazing apartment bathroom.

2. Carolyn gave me this awesome bottlecap that she got for me because it sums up my life in six words. 

3. There was a tornado warning Friday night and I survived. I'm pretty sure the panic attack I had took at least 3 years off my life, but it didn't hit us.

4. I got these new UnderArmour shorts on sale for $8, then took a self timer portrait in them after my run with my feet pigeon toed so my thighs don't touch, like a proper blogger.

5. Emily and my college friend Shane came to visit and brought some sweet gifts. Shane brought me a huge bottle of my favorite upstate NY wine, which will now be my light at the end of the Fire on the Mountain tunnel next weekend. 

Emily made and brought these delicious cookies, which are basically peanut butter in the middle of chocolate peanut butter dough. So good.

She provided the photo as well to tempt me until she arrived.

6. I tried white sangria and crab nachos, and both were a wonderful addition to the already long list of foods and drinks that I enjoy.

7. I finally earned enough points at Panera for a free Pumpkin Spice Latte. These are fantastic even when you pay for them, so I bet you can't even imagine how good a free one tastes. 

The running portion of my weekend could really be included on the highs list, but since this is supposed to be a running blog, I'll give it its own category.

1. Friday

 I had one of those runs where everything just clicked. My training plan (which I've been very loosely following) called for 9 miles, with 3 two mile intervals at half marathon pace. I ran to the track, and aimed to do those six miles at about 8:15. My splits ended up all being faster than that: 7:39, 8:04, 7:56, 7:42, 7:33, and 7:38. I ran home, and even though I was crunched for time, I just couldn't resist tacking on one extra mile. My last mile was 7:29, which is practically my 5K PR pace, and this was on my hilly street, not the track! My overall pace was 8:03, aka my ten mile race PR pace. 

2. Saturday

My friend Matt, who is also training for JFK, joined me for a 20 miler. We ran nice and slow, averaging a 10:15 pace. The notable thing about this run was that 20 miles didn't seem scary, or even like a big deal. The run flew by, and while my legs were tired at the end, by the time I went to work I felt like I'd never run. I don't know if this state will be permanent for me, but fingers crossed.

We didn't feel like we wanted to run another 30 after this, however.

3. Sunday

Finally, a day where I wasn't running in 90% + humidity. I woke up and knew as soon as I checked the weather that I was about to have a great run. My legs were all like "20 miler yesterday? what 20 miler?". I ran 12 miles with no music at an average pace of 9:05 in my hilly neighborhood, and even finished up the last mile in 8:24. It was glorious. 

That brings me to 64 miles for the week, which I didn't think was possible for me the week after a marathon. Next week will (hopefully) be my highest mileage week of JFK training, and then it will be time to taper for the race - insane!

Lame question, but I actually want to know, what were your weekend highs and lows?