saturday training

Today I met up with Meredith, Mike and Doug for 16. We planned to loop around and end up at the lake for 13 (all Mike was doing) and then I’d stop at 16, and Meredith and Doug would do 20. It had been a long time since Meredith and I ran together, so we were chatting alot. The new part of the trail was not very crowded so we were often running 4 abreast. It was funny, when Meredith and I were chatting, we would surge forward, when the guys dominated the conversation (not that often), they would be slightly ahead.

I forgot my watch, but at one point Mike asked us if we knew we’d just done a 7:45 mile. He kept trying to get us to hold our pace, but we kept increasing it.

We did the first loop (according to my map 6.5 miles, but everyone called it 7) in 58:xx. Took a quick sip of water and headed south. At the three mile turn-around we decided to do a slowish jog to the water fountains. On the way back Meredith’s asthma started bothering her – it was super humid, and you could hear her struggling for breath. At about mile 12, Doug and I pulled ahead a bit, and he said he’d continue on to do the 16 with me. Meredith and Mike stopped at 13 – Mike was the most pumped about running as I’ve seen him in forever – literally, probably a year. It was good to see. Doug and I headed out for another 3, and I finished strong although at mile 15.5 I’d felt I was starting to drag a bit.

We finished in 2:14:17 (8:23 pace, although I’m not sure about how the time was kept on the jog break, etc. If that time was only for 15.5 miles, it was an 8:40 pace)

My left foot was hurting on the ball of the foot beneath my big toe. That makes me feel like I was over-pronating a bit, which doesn’t excite me. But I had been cutting down on glucosamine and my legs were sore Fri night, so perhaps that was still working itself out.

Overall I felt really strong. It was a good run, I’m feeling pretty good for the 9th!