Today’s schedule called for 50-minutes at an easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. After our tough tempo effort yesterday, Nathan and I decided to get in a nice recovery run on a softer surface by utilizing both the Vaughn’s Gap Cross Country Course and the Steeplechase Course within Percy Warner Park.
This morning we were joined by our friend Josh who is training for the Murfreesboro “Middle” Half Marathon this fall. With another round of rain and storms last night, the grass on both of these courses was pretty wet, but the continued lower temperatures were very nice.
We kept everything very chill with regard to pace, starting out around 10:00 and dropping into the mid 8:00s by the end. Due to some construction on a couple of foot bridges at the cross country course, we decided to take a little detour on the Candy Cane Connector Trail over to the Steeplechase Course. The grass at the Steeplechase was fairly long, which left our shoes pretty soaked and heavy, but the surface felt very nice as it always does.
After heading back to the Candy Cane Connector, we finished things off back at the cross country course before starting our stride outs. For the strides we stayed in the grass on the course as I continually watched Nathan and Josh blow past me.
One unusual thing this morning is that we kept seeing rabbits along our route. By the end of the run I had counted seven that went scampering out of our way. Guess they were enjoying the cooler temps and the wet grass!
In total we completed around 5.75-miles this morning with the stride outs at a 9:05 average pace. It was the perfect recovery run for me, and a great way to start the morning with friends!
Beast Mode….ON!