Catching Up

I realized this morning that the last time I blogged was from my phone after getting lost in Houston, so I figured I should catch up.

On Saturday, I went out to run with the Runner's World Group. We were scheduled for a 20-mile run. I woke up to thunder, lightning, and rain, and a forecast for snow. As much as I would like to have just slept in, I knew I needed to get up and run.

Once we had received our instructions, a somewhat smaller group of us left Veteran's Park, running north on Riverside, across on 11th, back down south on the west side of the river, across the river on the pedestrian bridge, and through the Midland Valley Trail, across on 18th to Main and then Boulder, which took us back to the park. We were to run this 5-mile loop 4 times.

We got drenched on the first loop. Moving into the second loop, the wind picked up significantly, and running north on Riverside, our faces were pelted with slanting rain and ice. This soon turned to one of the heaviest snows I've seen in a long time. It was a great snow, and I would loved to have run in it, except that I was soaked to the skin, and I had not dressed appropriately for such weather, nor had I brought so much as a change of socks. After the second loop, I saw Kathy sitting in her truck at the park. She told me that the tent had blown down and that most people had decided to head home. I decided to do the same. My car punished me for giving up early by failing to start--dead battery. I eventually got a jump and was able to drive home, disappointed.

On Sunday, I saw the news: the Runner's World group was going to do a make-up run that afternoon. I was pretty excited, and I made sure to get out there to run an additional 10 miles. Because I was splitting up my 20 miles, I tried to run a little harder. The pavement was still wet, especially on the west side of the river, but it was a nice, sunny day--perfect for running. I had actually dressed too warmly, and this was a little bit of a detriment.

On Monday, I ran the toughest 5 miles I've ever run. I was very sore from running now 3 days in a row. My muscles were wondering if I had actually stopped running since Saturday at 7:00. I was surprised at how fatigued I was. I finished with a very mediocre time, but I didn't care...I was just glad to be done with that one.

I moved my Tuesday 7-mile run to today (Wednesday) to let my body heal up for a day. When I woke up this morning, I was ready. It was a good, hard run. My legs were still a little sore, but that seems to be the case every day these days, so I'm not convinced that it was because of my weekend/early week runs.

4-1-09
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 58:53
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:18

3-30-09
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 43:38
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:39

4-1-09
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1 hr. 34 min. (apprx.)
Avg. Mile Pace: 9:10

3-29-09
Distance: 10 miles