Taper Time

Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009:

The Woodbury Runners meet at about 6:00 pm or a few minutes after, every single Wednesday night of the year, in Edgewater Park at Lake Rd and Edgewater Drive. Tonight Rich and I took the short 5.2-mile route while the faster people ran the regular 6.2-mile route. They finished ahead of us anyway. Jim has a new dog, an enthusiastic but untrained pup from a rescue shelter who turned out to be the only hazard on the run. She jumps up on people, and her toenails left me with a little cut on my ankle. I think it will heal OK though. The dog has lost an eye, and her name is Sophe, which is Sophie with a missing "I." Cute. And so is she.

Otherwise the run was uneventful, except for the cheery and enjoyable conversation with Rich. Neither of us had a watch, mine being still out of commission, but we queried the others and probably finished the 5.2 miles in about 55 minutes. If so, the pace was about 10:35. Could be. Easier for me than for Rich, who doesn’t get as much time to run as I do. Last run before the weekend events. Four nights of sleep before the marathon.

Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009:

My favorite trail, the rocky path alongside the railroad track, pretty level but a mix of dirt, sand gravel, and rocks. I started out running for the first mile, then slowed to my 2-minute run / 1-minute walk pace. Nice cool run, no problems except my knees did get a little cold. They’ll get accustomed to that this fall - I hope they’ll be OK by this weekend.

My watch reset itself during this run. Insert your favorite expletives here: (..........). Anyway I don’t have a time for the run, but I suppose it’s about 10:30 pace, or a total of about 42 minutes for four miles. Works for me. Taper run. And a new battery in my cranky old watch will fix it. Needs that every year or so.

Salmon cakes a la Sunshine, peas, beet pickles, cooked radishes. Mostly organic.