Singing in the Rain

This morning, Gilbert sent us off to do a nice relaxed one hour run to flush out the remaining debris in our legs from the half marathon pace run. The weather was rainy, wet, and cool (43 degrees). I bundled up more than normal, just to try to stay dry (got out the rain jacket for the first time in quite a while), and we were off. Kelly, Frank, Alex, Jan and I formed a pack, and headed counterclockwise on the trail, doing the I-35 loop.

With the weather conditions, we got a little silly early, laughing about being out on a morning like this. The run was nice and comfortable, and besides dodging water puddles on the trail (we were unsuccessful), it wasn't all that bad. There was a lot of conversation as we cruised around, and it was nice to get to know Kelly a little better today. We discussed race strategy and paces for Freescale (Alex is going for a serious time, and Kelly and Frank plan to run together, with Jan and me forming a pace pod, we think), as well as a host of other topics. By the time we reached Auditorium Shores, we had only seen 3 or 4 runners on the trail, so we gave everyone we saw this morning a warm greeting. If someone was crazy enough to be out on a day like this, they deserved a hearty acknowledgement. We finished the workout off with 6 striders, flicking mud on our backs as we did full Gazelles form on the strides.

The workout ended up being just over 7 miles at 9:55/mile pace, which was perfect. I immediately got the wet clothes off and put on warm dry stuff from the truck, and I was very happy once I got warm stuff on. I was probably overdressed afterwards, but I'm not about to get chilled and catch a cold this close to the big race. I felt really great out there today, with very little stiffness or soreness from the half marathon, and it's very exciting to be less than 2 weeks away from Freescale. A nice easy 30-40 minute run tomorrow, then 3-5 x 800m at marathon pace (or perhaps slightly faster) on Thursday, and a 10 mile run on Saturday, incorporating the end of the marathon course for one last reconnaissance run. We'll get to maybe 30 miles this week, probably less, as the taper gets into full swing.