7 Mile "Easy" Run and Striders Galore

This morning, I was able to meet the fall marathoners for their 7 mile "easy" Monday run at 5:45 am. Their 20 miler on Saturday was a tough one, and Gilbert is giving them Monday "off" of their usual pace run to give them extra chances to recover. So, I figured their "easy" pace would be sort of a pace run for me, and was able to make time to join them this morning. There was a pretty large crew of people, including Frank and Jan, and Alex was there to help me represent the "non-marathoners." Gilbert cautioned everyone to take it easy this morning, meaning the folks who did 20 on Saturday.

We did the I-35 loop clockwise, starting in pretty dark conditions, and it was another warm and humid morning. I started off running with Alex and Jan, moving pretty easily and carefully on the trail as we tried to negotiate the sometimes uncertain footing on the trail when the light wasn't all that good. Just after we crossed the Mopac bridge and started back along the trail past the rowing center (they were really busy for 6:00am, by the way), Jan moved on ahead of Alex and me. I think we were talking too much for her, but that's okay. I admit that between Alex and me, we can fling a lot of verbiage. :) Our first 3 miles were 9:46, 9:28, and 9:11 as we drifted into pace.

At that point, it seemed to me that we started picking it up even more, and later review of the splits told me that was not my imagination. Jan was rolling along ahead of us, and suddenly as the light got better, Alex and I noticed that Frank and Anne were just ahead as well. I suppose that in spite of our stated goal of running easy, we must have gotten a little adrenaline going. We caught up to Frank, Anne and Jan as they stopped for a quick water break, but Alex and I just continued on our way. I was starting to feel much more like I was on a pace run, but since we had only run 10 on Saturday, that would be okay with me. Since my running partner was Alex, I started thinking that he would want to blast away pretty soon, too. We got to the I-35 bridge with a couple of fast guys trailing right behind us, and it was time for the Big Finish. As we crested the Riverside hill, I told Alex that I might ease up after the hill, but he was nice enough to say that he usually eases up there, too. Those next 3 miles in there were 8:39, 8:22 and 8:23, which for me were a lot more like a pace run.

Anyway, we finished up Riverside, and darted onto the trail for the last mile or so. Alex and I took turns keeping up the pace, and that really helped me. Alex's announcement that we were right at 9:00 pace with just a little ways to go gave me the last bit of encouragement that I needed, and we finished up at the RunTex water stop at Auditorium Shores, drenched with sweat. The last 1.1 miles were something like .8 miles at 8:16, and .3 miles at 7:52 pace. Pretty cool. Total run was 7.07 miles at an average of 8:51, a nice little run for me.

A quick drench under the outdoor shower there helped a bunch, and then we trudged over to do the striders suggested by Gilbert. The marathoners were doing 15x100m, and Alex and I ended up doing 12 x 100m. When I used the proper form and exaggerated the high knee and butt kick stuff, I did move faster and easier, but I could tell that I was working pretty hard.

That's about when Gilbert showed up, and we did some of his hopping stuff followed by some of the form drills. Last, we hit the ground for situps and pushups. He prescribed 100 situps, the real kind, and I managed 3x25 of them for 75, along with the full 2x10 pushups. Alex really helped me out again on the situps, first by just blowing out his 100 situps like they were nothing (although I know they were hard for him, too), and second by being very encouraging as I struggled on my second and third sets of 25. I was surprised that I could do as many as I did. The pushups weren't all that tough. By the time I got finished, I was totally dirty. The combination of really wet running clothes and the dust and dirt at Auditorium Shores made for a pretty bad combination. Most of us hosed off the biggest part of the grime, but it was a really funny looking group of runners, that's for sure.

After a nice walk to RunTex, it was great to put on a clean t-shirt. The post-run Endurox was a great refresher, and after a few minutes of talk with Alex and some other folks, I was on the road. It was a surprisingly good run this morning, and for the last time, I have Alex to thank for his fine job of pacing and positive mental energy. I'll stop gushing now, I promise. Tomorrow is Wilke, so I need to figure out if I want to meet Alex and the crazy people for the longer warmup and cooldown run. We'll see.