Morning:
As always, a delightful run with friends. Tom, Mike, and Dave zipped out ahead with Wayne and me a few minutes behind. Roy, Dave, and Charlie followed not far behind. 38 degrees with a little breeze and bright blue sky, the day started very well. Wayne and I finished the five miles in 44:07, for a modest pace of 8:49. Good enough - I have a chest cold and really didn’t want to breathe any harder. Lovely run.
Afternoon:
When I am running without injury I like to set up a schedule of runs and follow it rather closely. Today the schedule went out the window! I had planned to run five miles today (Saturday) and five or six more tomorrow, setting up for a 14-mile run later in the week, probably Tuesday. But a quick look at the weather of the week ahead suggested that today would be the best day of all. Furthermore, my sweeties were already out on the Gateway Trail, first time this year, so why not join them? Besides that I had already run five miles in the morning, so perhaps an additional 10 or 12 miles would be enough to equal a continuous run of 14 miles.
Sure enough, it worked. Despite the lovely 60-degree weather, the Gateway Trail was not really in running shape yet, with significant stretches still layered in squishy snow as shown on Sunshine’s Blog. Nevertheless I ran and slogged for 12 ponderous miles, finishing in 1:57:45, for an average pace of 9:49. Truly Long Slow Distance (LSD). I walked through much of the snow as a precaution against falling, especially in the last several miles when I was especially tired.
But I feel wonderful. Thigh and calf muscles have that “take me to bed” feeling that tells me this was a good training run. No pains WHATSOEVER. By far the biggest running day since January. A good day all around - it’s a masterpiece!
Splits: 9:24, 9:04, 9:28, 8:36, 9:16, 8:49, 8:51, 11:25, 10:10, 10:53, 11:45, 10:02.
First half of today's breakfast: Denver omelet with organic eggs, organic salsa, and parmesan cheese, and organic pomegranate juice. Thank you Sunshine.
Second half of today's breakfast: Fruit bowl containing a banana, organic apple, kiwi, blueberries, dried cranberries, organic yogurt, organic medjool date, Dove dark chocolate Easter egg. Maybe by now it's an Ascension egg.
Tonight's recovery dinner: Tender roasted venison with a delicious curry sauce, organic sweet potato, naval orange. Not shown: A very nice stout.
Splits all over the board, you can tell the trail wasn't in good shape in spots. You had some in the mid-8s though, good for your second long run of the day. I'll bet your surprise was delightful when you found your family on the trail. Glad you had some good news on your other blog. I did a 20-miler on a cool, misting day yesterday and kept my pace at 8:55s pretty much until the 15th mile or so when it slowed into the mid-9s, but it was my first run past 15 miles since September. The Chicago Fun Run doesn't count b/c I started run/walking after 8 miles (I was on antibiotics then for a bad cold and it knocked me for a loop--besides the heat and the "No Running Police").
ReplyDelete