Just for fun, if you go to the Chicago Marathon website, you can design a digital footprint in which if approved, Bank of America will donate $1 to the charity of your choice. Since I am running in honor of Pat through the Diabetes Action Team, I created my own footprint to further help my fundraising which has been virtually obsolete. Also, fun little article about running and economics - relates the economic theory of opportunity cost with running - very true!
Yesterday after work, Crystal and I did our scheduled 10 mile run. Weather was sunny and a little warmer (~75), so we hit the trails for an out and back. Felt pretty good, but as soon as we started the usual soreness/tightness kicked in so took a mile to shake it out. Crystal was in a rather foul mood from a crappy day at work plus was the recipient of a lot of ribbing from Tim and I about a former rival, so she was certainly ready to run more aggressively than usual. Because of an appointment of hers, we were running under a little time constraint so I thought it might be a good idea to get in our pace run earlier with the 20 miler looming this weekend. Also, it was a good opportunity to get in a run at warmer temperatures just in case we have another warm one in Chi this year.
Anyways, we started out moving ok, was stiff the first mile but worked it out. 2nd and 3rd mile, was definitely flying at this point, and looked down at my watch to see sub 7 minutes which was a LOT more faster than originally planned. Said something to Crystal, she pretty much yelled at me saying I was trying to kill her blah blah blah, so I eased up to let Miss Warrior Princess lead the pace since her running aspiration is to be Paula Radcliffe, whose basic running style is to lead and punish the other runners with a ridiculous grinding pace. Go figure, the splits do not lessen up, but both of us were feeling good so kept forging on. Pat at this point caught up to us on bike, so was nice to have him in our little "peloton". Came out of the woods on the trail, decided to go a different route which was pretty flat, and still felt ok. Made the turn around, realized this new "flat" portion actually had a slight grade, which meant it was uphill ALL the way going home - ugh! Next couple miles were ok, but could feel the uphill starting to burn. Last few miles, we ended up slowing down slightly and legs were pretty beat from 4+ miles uphill. Total mileage: 10 miles - splits were: 7:28, 7:03, 6:52, 6:55, 6:54, 6:55, 6:57, 7:03, 7:06, 7:02 (~7:02 average).
Was thrilled to get in pretty much a hybrid pace/tempo run, was a perfect workout for the upcoming Lewis and Clark half marathon next weekend. Having Pat out there helped a ton, as well as having a ton of walkers/bikers on the trail - always easier to run when there are people around. Crystal and I are going to race conservatively, using that race as a 15 mile tempo/pace run so there will be no ridiculous PR pace - just another training run. Will probably hit high 6's, low 7 minute pace - nothing too aggressive.
This morning, woke up bright and early for our scheduled easy run which both of us just wanted to get out of the way. Sun wasn't up yet, probably was in the high 40's, so wore a long sleeve shirt on the run which I hadn't done since probably February. Did an out and back on the flat part of the trail. Nothing to note, both of us were a little sore from the hard 10 yesterday, so we took it easy. Run went by pretty fast, mainly because I was pretty much sleep jogging through all of it! Total mileage: 5 miles - splits were (guessing, didn't wear my Garmin but Crystal called out the splits): 9:12, 8:58, 8:53, 8:48, 8:33.
Walked back towards the house with our normal victory stroll - before we got back, I heard a loud gasp and felt Crystal grab my arm. Pivoted my head to see what appeared to be right out of the movie of Arachnophobia, crawling right for my head. Completely froze, before I could panic my body spring into action and I quickly flicked it off my shoulder. I am absolutely terrified of spiders, and completely repressed that memory on the spot- in fact, Crystal just emailed me to remind me of the emotional drama this morning - lol. Legs are tired after 19 glorious miles this week already, but we basically have a day and a half off since our run is already over! Stretch mucho all day, corework/runners yoga tonight!
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