Recovery Run and Travel Tales [Posted 5/9/05]

Sunday morning, we got up and rolling about 8:00. Accelerade and a banana on the way to refuel the machine for me. The four of us went up to the Broad Ripple area, again, for a nice 4.7 mile easy run up and back on the towpath along the same canal that ends up in Indianapolis, some 10 miles downstream from where we were. Dead flat running, on crushed rock surface like the Town Lake hike and bike trail. I felt really good all along, which was surprising. My legs were a little heavy the first quarter mile or so, but I got rolling pretty well by the end of the run. 4.7 miles, 45:04, easy 9:35 pace overall. After that, we did almost all the extended stretching routine, except for the ropes bit. Andy and Jeff were gracious enough to let Alex and I do our stretching. Thanks, guys!

After that, it was time to eat again, at a local bagelry. Then, back to the hotel, cleanup time, followed by a trip out to the Speedway to watch rookie orientation and practice. It's the first time I've been to the Speedway with race cars on the track, and the noise was really amazing! We hung out in the infield on the grassy berm in turn 3 for a while, watching and listening to the scene. Among the funny things that I saw was a young kid, three years old (I asked), who was deeply asleep on a blanket out there with his parents. He had earplugs in his ears, but really now...falling asleep with that racket going on? We strolled around the grounds, which are truly gargantuan...there's a full Formula One road circuit in the infield, plus 4 holes of a golf course (the rest of the course is just east of the track), plus a pond or two, parking for thousands of cars, and parking areas for all the teams at the race and the TV folks. Just sprawling. We ended up over by the pit areas, right up against the fence, and listened to the cars and the action even closer than we were before. Alex and I took a bunch of pictures, and it was a really fun time to experience all that up close. We timed it, and those cars were ripping around the track in 38 seconds or so. It took me about 21 minutes to cover the same distance on foot the day before...perspective, huh?

After the Speedway visit, it was time for food again, then to the airport. I bid my goodbyes, and had no problem negotiating security again. I got a paper for Frank so he could read the race coverage, and settled at the gate. Made my Mother's Day calls that had not yet been made, and then had a comfy flight to DFW. I read most of my book, wrote down a bunch of notes about the race and the weekend (you don't think I just remember all this stuff that easy, do you?), and knocked out the Indy paper's Sunday crossword. My second flight, from DFW to Austin, was delayed quite a while, with us parked on the runway, while a storm cleared out of there. That was no fun. Then, once we got in the air, a storm was hanging out over Austin, and we had to cruise around a while waiting for that to clear, too. At any rate, I finally ended up landing in Austin two hours after schedule, but I got home before midnight, anyway.

It was a great weekend, though, despite the travel issues on the way home. I'm already excited about next year's race! My 5K and 10K times get me into the third seeded group right now for Indy 2006, and I could get a time at some distance that will get me into Seeded Group Two by the deadline for such things. I'm looking forward to nice relaxed running this week, and a return to Gazelles the following week.

Stats for the Week (5/2-8): 5 runs, 35.6 miles. PR half marathon race, and a handful of nice tuneup or recovery runs around that. Even got to the gym once. This week, it'll all be nice and easy running, and I'll do some solid gym work as well.