(another) lost weekend

Yet another weekend that flew by. It was another weekend I had to cram a bunch of errands and chores into. It was another weekend I had to work. It was another weekend I had to find time to run.

A little background on my usual weekend (for this year anyway)... My wife's grandmother's house burned down on January 4th of this year. The good news is she was not home and not hurt. The first few weekend of the year was spent sifting through the ashes, trying to salvage furniture (heirlooms) and memories.

The insurance company agreed to replace the house. Floor plans were needed. I, being an architect, offered my services. I had some ideas to improve upon what she had - with the main idea of making it easy for her to live in the house. You see, she is 81 years old and while she is still very active, she won't be able to climb stairs forever and this is where her bedroom was. So a little reoganizing the inside and making a few design choices to better the space, the building process was started. I spent several weekends working on the design and preparing the drawings. I met with the contractors and I have been to the house almost every weekend all summer long. It is an hour drive to get there, so it never ended up being a quick trip, no matter how we planned. It has taken from March until now to get where we are - about two weeks from completion. A ridiculously long process, but well worth the wait. On Saturday we picked up a bunch of items for the house on our way down and then I completed my walk-thru inspection and created my list of items to fix (a punch-list). Before we knew it Saturday was gone.

My work week was a trying one and I had brought work home with me to do. Needless to say, it was going to have to be done on Sunday. But what about my run, you may ask? I took a break around 3:00 and went to Fort Harrison State Park for a run. I decided it was time to hit the hills again and I always enjoy the serenity of the park. Most of the leaves were on the ground, but the smell of autumn was still in the air - wonderful.

My run wasn't the easiest, but I pushed myself hard today. I felt I needed to for some reason. I got my 7 miles in at an 8:55/mile pace. I felt good when I was done.

I am hoping to normalize my schedule this week, but it promises to be yet another busy one, so we'll see. If I can just get a run in on Tuesday and Thursday, it should be okay. My recovery schedule is not happening the way I had hoped. So, I am now pondering my options for the spring... mary or half-mary? Probably too early to make a decision yet - especially a knee-jerk reaction based on my previous weekends this year.

I caught a little of the NY Marathon on TV today... inspiring. Even seeing Lance Armstrong finishing in just under 3 hours and looking beat... it made me feel better. Even Lance Armostrong can look like that...