My log posts are waaaay behind due to our family vacation to Disney World, and getting engrossed in the new “Steve Jobs” biography by Walter Isaacson. So this will be a long catch-up post.
Wednesday (Oct 19)
Running: (5.4-Mile Easy Run) Paxton and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for an easy run on our standard “Nature Center” loop. This was a very easy run with every mile over 9:00 pace. My legs are still toast from 3 consecutive races, and I’m also having a little trouble with my right ankle. I’m thinking about running tomorrow and then shutting it down while we are at Disney World Fri to Mon.
Thursday (Oct 20)
Running: (4.5-Mile Trail Run) Paxton, Nathan and I met for an easy run on the red trail this AM in PW Park. The run was enjoyable, but my legs just had no jump at all. Also, my ankle turned out to be a big problem with the uneven surface, so I’m glad we kept it to 4.5 miles. Since we are leaving at noon today for Disney World, I’m firmly decided that I’m not running at all while we are gone. Not even taken my shoes. I’ve got to work on getting the jump back in my legs and healing this ankle.
Friday (Oct 21) to Monday (Oct 24)
I took four days off from running and cross training while my family and I were in Disney World. Of course these were not truly “days off” since we did a TON of walking, and my feet HURT!!
Tuesday (Oct 25)
Running: (9.3-Mile Tempo Run) Nathan, Paxton & I met at the Percy Warner main gates for a 9-mile tempo run through Belle Meade. I did not know how I would feel coming off of a vacation with lots of walking, but my goal was to do the last 4 miles at marathon pace. We started off with a pretty easy 8:45 mile before dropping the speed down to 8:00 pace and below. My legs felt pretty dead, and my feet hurt worse than I was expecting. Anything below 8:00 felt fairly fast.
By the time we got to the last 4 miles, I knew there was no way I could maintain marathon pace, so I just did the best that I could. With 2 miles to go, Nathan absolutely took off, dropping the pace well below 7:00. I picked it up as well, but nothing compared to what Nathan did. My last two miles were 7:41 and 7:01, and it felt good to finish strong.
Cross-Training: Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Legs and Back. Hoping I’m not as sore tomorrow and Thursday as I was after doing this workout last Tuesday.
Wednesday (Oct 26)
Running: (5-Mile Recovery Run) Paxton and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for an easy run on our standard “Nature Center” loop. The weather was absolutely perfect, the conversation was fantastic, and it was a very enjoyable run. We kept it pretty easy the whole way, but did each mile faster than the previous. Our first was at 9:41 and our last was 8:33. Great recovery run.
On a side note, 18-years ago today was my first date with Olivia. We went to a little restaurant in the Green Hills Mall called the “Silver Spoon Cafe.” Today that location is a Brooks Brothers, and we often joke about taking a picnic dinner and eating in the bow-tie section (I’m partial to bow ties).