Wednesday, November 23rd - 4 miles. Crystal and I did a late run. Pitch black outside, and Crystal wanted to try out her new head lamp, which made her look like coal miner. As she was adjusting it, I kept making mechanical sounds and calling her a Transformer which I'm sure didn't please her. Anyways, to avoid any traffic, suggested going on the trail since it would be open and we could truly utilize the light. Got onto Old Faithful and wanted to work our way towards Home Depot route, since that trail is paved and pretty flat. So we're running on the trail, and I was commenting on how cool that headlamp was (since it was like a damn spotlight and we could see everything), when the light went out and I heard a huge thump! Crystal tripped over some uneven pavement, and just bit the dust. Fortunately, she wasn't seriously hurt, and we laughed for the rest of the run. But when we got back and took off her gloves and coat, she was a bloody and bruised mess! Regardless, it was truly a "Warrior Princess" moment, and Crystal earned her stripes that night. 32:31 outside, which includes a good minute of non running from her fall and checking on her.
Thursday, November 24th - 5 miles. Happy Thanksgiving! Did my parent's neighborhood loop, then tacked on some more in a closeby neighborhood. Long, rolling hills - not the most fun, but nice to get in especially with dinner coming up. Felt ok, but hills definitely make you work harder. 37:59 total.
Friday, November 25th - 7 miles (1 up, TROT FOR TOTS 2 MILER (10:52 - 5th place (out of ~350)), 1 down, 3 p.m.). Drove over to the Peoria Riverplex with Anne and picked up my number and warmed up around downtown. Windy and cool, and legs felt very tight so spent a good amount of time stretching. Waited inside for a while before we all shuttled out to the start line. I've run downtown before, so had an idea of the course which proved to be correct (uphill first mile, downhill second mile). Found out that the Santa Claus parade took place immediately after this race, so we had spectators galore which is always a nice touch. Talked with a few college runners who were home for the holidays, before lining up and taking off! Those 3 college runners were immediately gone, so came out hard. Got immediately passed by an overzealous runner, so just waited and caught him within a half mile. Another guy zoomed by, and I lost him immediately so was running solo most of the way. First mile, we ran through most of downtown (uphill) and made a few turns before it flattened out. Hit a good first mile split, before making a turn down a pretty big hill. Almost crashed into an idiot woman and her children, who decided to cross the street without looking, so exchanged some unpleasantries with her before taking off. Caught up to one of the parade cars, and got a ton of encouragement from the many spectators and high-fived as many of the children as I could. Turned onto Hamilton St. (same enormous downhill as Steamboat), then shot down that hill hard before turning onto the river trail which is a slow downhill. Could sort of see the finish, so kicked hard and blasted through the finish with no one else in sight behind me. Great time/PR, and was on cloud nine! Jogged back to cooldown, then ran Anne in who ran a huge PR herself (17:10!). Garmin had 1.96, so might have been slightly short but I'm taking it nonetheless. 3 miles solo in the p.m. - legs were tired, but kept it slow for 25 minutes.
Saturday, November 26th - 4 miles. Travel day home, crappy weather, made it out for 4 slow miles. Out and back on the trail, poop. ~36 minutes, I think? Our friends Mick and Anne were in town, so had a long night celebrating Pat's birthday.
Sunday, November 27th - 12 miles. Long run with Crystal on Old Faithful. Cold, breezy, and overcast. Felt tired and wanted to keep it slow, but immediately started out pretty fast and never slowed down. First long run in a long time that felt pretty easy, and the night before certainly didn't help but oh well. 1:37 something - all our miles except one mile coming in was sub 8 minute pace.
43 miles this week - decent mileage, and a great race so I'll take it!
So a month of running with no workouts have passed, and feel pretty good. Had a few good races, and have generally felt decent on a lot of my runs. The Houston workouts start this week, so hoping we didn't lose too much half marathon fitness during this time. But it begins today, so time to get to work!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment