Last Week's Version of Success

I am just not that hard on myself.  It's true.  When I fall short of my goals, rather than beating myself up, I generally look at how far above zero I am while striving for 100% and call it success.

So, this is how we get last week.  I managed to clear a *ton* of work from my todo list.  The work list at the end of the week (before the weekend) was much smaller than the one at the beginning.  This almost never happens, so I was thrilled.  Also, E's sister and husband were coming in to town for a weekend of awesome debauchery in Napa and I knew I wouldn't be able to (or at least be motivated to) squeeze in any work, so it was very nice to go into the weekend without work stress looming in the horizon.

Napa was amazing and over the top. We started with a shared adorable house within walking distance of downtown Napa and added in visits to Morimoto, Oenotri, Elyse Winery, Outpost Estate Wines, RoccaWines, Elizabeth Spencer Wines, Oxbow Public Market, the Model Bakery, Ehlers Estate, an amazing tasting menu at Redd (Best meal of the trip!), and... on the way back home, in case we hadn't had enough, we finished it all off with a magnum from the tasting trip at House of Prime Rib.

So, it was a great work and social week.  And the running/fitness?  Well, I'm super proud of myself because I actually managed to do *most* of what was scheduled.

M: Bikram.  Took Cynthia's class, and while I made it through more poses than the week before, I did end up needing to leave for some cool air once we were on the ground.  I was not remotely mentally tough enough to stay in that heat for another 45 minutes.  Oh well.  I still had a great Bikram workout.

T: 51:22 minutes with 10 X (1 min fast/1 min slow) in the middle.  4.81 miles -- slow, but done.

W: Track day with the ladies, which I love and usually can't attend, so I was very happy.  Short intervals, so I pushed it and surprised myself with my relative speed (1.5 jog; 3X100 pickup; 100 walk; drills; 200/47; 2:00 RI; 200/47; 2:00 RI; 400/1:51; 2:00 RI; 600/3:01; 2:40 RI; 400/1:54; 2:00 RI; 200/45; 3:00 RI; 200/48; 2:48 RI; 100/20; 0:19 RI; 100/24; 0:30 RI; 100/21; 0:29 RI; 100/20; 400 walk recovery (3.6 miles total)

Th: The schedule said off or 40-60 minutes easy.  I settled for 20 minutes easy. 2.05 miles w/ 0.25 walk c/d.  Some might call this failure.  I call it compromise.

F:  The surprisingly great tempo run.

Sa: 82:30 alone and slow along the Napa Valley River.  Last 20:00 with E, slightly faster.  This run was all about time on my feet.  I'm up to 102 minutes.  I need to get in a couple of 130+ minute runs before SJRNR.  gmap-pedometer informs me I did 8.08 miles for a tortoise-like average pace of 11:28.  You might think I'd be disappointed at how slow this is.  But, no.  I'm just not that hard on myself.  I'm impressed that I did 102 minutes on a wine weekend after a big blowout pre-run night of food and sake at Morimoto.

Su: 0.5 mile jog to coffee.  0.4 mile jog to bathroom.  3.81 on the Napa Valley River trail in 41:22 for a blistering 10:50 average pace -- we'll call this the wine weekend post tasting menu PR pace.  Rewarded myself with more wine tasting and a big steak dinner with all the sides.

Total mileage: 27.99.  Average increase in weight over the week? Approximately 6 pounds.  Again, you might think I'd be hard on myself about this.  But you'd be wrong.  I had a fabulous week.