Early Start for Some Long Mileage

To accommodate our respective Easter weekend schedules, Frank and I arranged to run this morning, leaving at 5:30 am for a 13-14 mile journey. Since we were a little tired after yesterday's tempo run, and we were running long without the usual rest day before it, we decided to run on flatter terrain for a change, and headed out in the 65 degree pre-dawn on the Longhorn Dam loop around Town Lake.

Early on in the run, Frank mentioned the song "Children of the Sun," from our high school and/or college years. I remembered the song well, but we couldn't remember who did it. We thought "Billy [somebody]," but couldn't get the last name. It wasn't Billy Squier, who did "The Stroke," among other hits of that era, but someone else... Of course, that song, as well as "The Stroke," stuck in my head for the rest of the run. Eventually, as I ran through the song in my head, one of the vocal bits in COTS reminded me of a vocal riff in Earth, Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland," so that song joined the other two. [Ed. Note: research on Amazon.com showed that Billy Thorpe did COTS]

The first 4 miles of the run went smoothly, and we made a brief 1 minute stop for hydration adjustments near the Holly power plant. Average pace early was 9:24/mile. After that first stop, we cruised along Town Lake until we reached the Mopac bridge, where we took our second water/GU stop. Again, it was brief, a little over a minute. Overall pace through 8 miles was 9:20/mile, as we started to pick it up a bit.

From there, we crossed the street and followed the trail/path underneath Mopac and along the creek there, heading up to Enfield. One of the tunnels was blocked at the far end by debris from the recent heavy rains, so we had to backtrack a bit, and pick our way through another tunnel. It was somewhat sluggish going as we headed uphill. Reaching Enfield, we cruised along the sidewalk there. It was just fine until Frank caught a shoetip on a crack in the sidewalk. He went down pretty hard, but managed to avoid breaking anything. He was sporting a couple of good knee scrapes, along with a matching strawberry on the elbow, but other than that was in good shape. I would have been a little more shaken than he was. At any rate, we resumed our journey, and the pace picked up for the rest of the run, as Frank's adrenaline rushed through his body after the crash.

We zoomed back by the Mopac bridge, and headed on the south trail to Auditorium Shores. We had some faster miles in there, and ran the last 5 miles or so in just under 9:00 average pace. Frank had to get going to relieve Carla at the house, so I did an extra bonus mile around Auditorium Shores and back to RunTex. It was a good run, even though my legs were a little tired throughout. Overall mileage was 14.25 at an average pace of 9:08/mile. Given the warmer temperatures and such, I score this one as a solid effort.

Afterwards, as I got my post-run clothing and Endurox out of the truck, I saw Amy Lemen and her friend Tiffany hanging out after their run. Amy is an ex-Gallowayer from my time as director there, and it was good to get caught up with her. I stretched a good bit, and headed home.

As always, it was good to have a running partner for this workout, and running with Frank is just that little bit more challenging than running alone or with my marathon gang. The pace is fine for half marathon training, but I'll have to figure out just where I fit in when Freescale 2006 training begins in September. Now, I get two rest days this weekend, which will be great. Tomorrow is a short and easy 30-45 minute recovery effort before the stretching session, and Sunday is a full day off. I'll probably go to the gym on Saturday as well, to get in that second gym workout for the week.