Catching Up

My routine is to post to this blog sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee in the morning but work has been way to busy to allow that this week. So it is time for a week of catch. I needed to look back at my training log to remember what I did.

Monday- Off

Tuesday

I went out to the group run. I remember running with Ian and Jim among a few others. The pace was moderate on the way out and picked up a little on the return. The temps were warm and I was sweating profusely by the time we finished. I still had to run the 5 miles back to my house and I wasn't looking forward to it. I stalled by chatting after the run and I was afraid that things would have tightened up in the 15 minutes I spent talking.

I shouldn't have worried, I felt great on the way back and had to hold back my pace. I was pleasantly surprised to see the miles going by at just over 7:00 pace and it felt easy. The last half mile I let it fly. I was having a hard time judging how fast I was running and then thought "Does this feel faster or slower than Broad Street?" it felt a little faster so I guess it was around 5:45 pace. 10 miles in 70 minutes

Wednesday

A run with Raymond. This is becoming a routine and I welcome it. Raymond and I chat mostly about running related items and keep an easy pace through the park. a little over 8.5 miles in 87 minutes.

Thursday

I was going to go to the Wanderers trail race again but I just had to much stuff to do at home and decided on a quick run from my house. Since I missed the race I just ran hard on a trail loop. I definitely didn't hit race pace but kept it more in the tempoish range, which really wasn't that fast with all the hills. 5.7 miles in 40 minutes.

Friday - off

Saturday.

Took an early morning trip to my folks house in Egg Harbor to beat the Memorial Day traffic. After a quick stop at their house I drove to the local bike trail about 1.5 miles away. It is a straight and flat rail to trail route that cuts right through a few towns near the back bays outside of Margate. It is lined with well manicured homes, ball fields, and schools.

I got running at 8:30 and it was already warm. It was summer warm, the humidity was up and the sun was quickly getting into position right over my head. I'm not really used to these temps and I am definitely not looking forward to it this summer. Although I was feeling hot, I kept thinking how these temps would feel like relief by the middle of July. Ugh.

The first hour or so I felt fine, keeping things around 7:20 pace. I stopped at my car after a 1/2 hour for a long pull on some cold water and set off again. This was the longer portion of the path and when I reached the turn around point 30 minutes later I was really feeling the temps. I slowed things down and even took a few walking breaks on the rare shady portions of the path. My search for a water fountain at each school and playground had turned up negative and I was cursing the townships for not putting any fountains in.

I saw a very fit runner heading the other way and asked him to point me towards a water fountain. Luckily, there was one just a 1/4" mile up the path tucked behind a building. I felt better after a break there and finished up the run. 12.4 miles in 1hr 36 minutes.

Sunday - off. I spent it on my Fathers boat fishing for flounder, listening to the Phillies game, drinking a few beers and catching a lot of sun. A great way to spend Memorial Day weekend. The Phillies won and we caught 7 flounder, 2 keepers.

37 miles for the week in 4 four runs.