All this tennis and spinning have caught up with me and totally killed my legs.

I played tennis Sunday in Maryland. My legs had been tight that morning so I stretched out a little bit when we got to the courts and they felt fine when I was playing. Unfortunately it started pouring on us, so we made a mad dash to the car before heading home and sitting around watching football (to be read: no post-tennis stretching).

I could feel my legs tightening up as I was sitting on sofa so I tried to rub out some of the tightness. I don't think it did much good though.

Yesterday I played tennis during my lunch break and my legs felt heavy and tired. That should have been a warning sign that spinning last night was going to be tough.

But I had plans to meet my friend Michele from work, and I had no intention of blowing her off.

You may remember the last time I went spinning, I wasn't super in love with the instructor, well last night the instructor was evil. She kicked my butt. But it felt good to ride really hard, and I was dripping with sweat by the time the class was over. (Get your minds out of the gutter people, I don't mean that to be dirty.)

It was a great workout, but I realized just how stressful cycling was on my IT Band. I could definitely feel it tightening a lot when I was riding. We hit the sauna afterward and I worked on my IT Bands a bunch in the heat, which I think helped. I also rolled them out with the Stick when I got home.

Today is a much needed rest day. I'm heading down to College Park for our soccer game tonight against Binghamton. I'm hoping the boys can rebound from Friday's loss and get a convincing win tonight.

Happy Saturday blogland!

It's rare that I'm on here writing a post on a Saturday morning when I'm not in serious training, but it's still kind of early (at least by college kid standards) and none of my other friends are really awake yet so I figured I'd report in on my run now.

I got sort of lucky with the weather. After monsooning last night for the soccer game (which we lost 4-2. Wake Forest is No. 1 in the country for a reason, they are definitely a legit. team) the rain cleared up for this morning. Unfortunately though the humidity is still hanging around.

Because I'm a real working person now, my internal clock thinks it's super cool to wake up at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings. (This is fabulous for when I'm in hard-core marathon training...not so much so for a random Saturday when I wanted to sleep in.) I ate a bowl of cereal, waited for my friend to stir so I could get her access card to her building and then hit the road.

I did one of my old loops around Maryland's campus that I knew was close to three miles, but I couldn't remember the exact distance. Much to my surprise when I mapped it out when I get back home it was 3.5 miles. I was happy to see that because I had been able to maintain a pretty consistent pace during the entire run even after having been off so long because of my knee.

I guess all the soccer and tennis I've been playing have at least helped maintain my fitness level.

Nothing super exciting to report about the run other than it was a steady effort, I had no knee pain (SWEET!) and the only discomfort was an achy left arch toward the very end of the run.

All in all it was a run I'm happy with and definitely gives me some confidence about the upcoming 5K.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck again to everyone racing!

ORN:
3.5 miles
37:48

Spin class last night rocked. I had been away far, far too long.

My co-worker Michele and I headed to the gym after work, both needing to de-stress and get some endorphins flowing. With everything going on in the financial world right now, this business reporter has been up to her eyeballs in work and was in desperate need of blowing off some steam.

The instructor was alright. I don't love her as much as I love Angie, who teaches my early morning spin class, but last night's lady gave me a workout, so I can't really complain.

I thought I was going to be hurting a lot more than I was, having been away from it so long, but I felt really good and was able to crank the tension back to my usual levels.

This weekend's festivities include an awesome soccer match between my No. 2 Terps and No. 1 Wake Forest (soccer fans out there you can catch the game on Fox Soccer Channel at 8 p.m. tonight). Tomorrow is my roommate's birthday so we're going to dinner and then out in D.C.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, but I packed my running stuff anyway because I'm craving a run around campus on my old stomping grounds. As long as the weather isn't too miserable I'm going to try to get out there.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend and good luck to all those racing!!!