Two Runny Runs

This weekend marked my first workouts in 8 full days. I don’t remember taking so much time off since before I began training. I picked a couple of good days to pick it back up. These two days were completely wet and soggy. I like this weather, so the conditions suited me just fine. Today was especially wet, with the water running off my hat like a house with a slant shingled roof.

I had company for both days though. On Saturday, I ran into my friend Robert. He kept me company from just before the middle of my run to the end. I was glad he was there, as I wasn’t ready to be alone with my own thoughts while training. I think I would have psyched myself out. I didn’t have a planned distance for the day, but I got in 8.6m.

Sunday, the wetter of the two days, I surprising ran into Todd. It is always a pleasant surprise to see him out in the rain, especially since he is prone to describe wet weather as “shitty”. To quote him from his email on Saturday “I can’t believe you’re running in this shit.” Well, according to his standards Sunday was a shittier day so the fact he made it out of his indoor training cocoon is amazing.

I only ran Todd for a short time, as he was just finishing up, while I was just getting started. Today call for a 10 mile run broken up as a 3m warm up, 5m Time Trial and a 2 m cool down. The 3m warm up was very tough. I was feeling nauseous, was over dressed and felt over heated. I stopped a few times to get my wits. When I reached the 3m mark, I decided to shed down to a short sleeve shirt and shorts. This helped a bit. What really got me through the run was running into my friend Kevin, who then kept me company for the remaining 7m. He was running a decent pace, which helped me stay honest to my workout. From that point I ran 2.5m in a 7:58 pace, followed by 2.5m at a 7:27 pace. The 2m cool down was at 8:17.

I am somewhat relieved that I was able to run a decent total of 18m this weekend. I thought with all the time off, my running would really suck. It’s only a concern really; because I am doing the New Jersey Marathon next Sunday and I fear that taking so much time off won’t bode well for that event. I’ll just have to see. At this point, I really have no goals for the race other that to finish.