Saturday, we started from a different spot for our longish run. 6:00 am just so we could get done before the sun got too high, and we had a nice little crew. Diana, Liliana and Alex all joined Amy and me for our 10 miler, and it was cool to have some faster people join us for a change. Diana and Liliana have taken most of the summer off, for various reasons, and this run would be their longest run in quite some time. The course was a new one for us, an out and back that was a truncated version of the fall marathoners' 20 miler today. We went from the rock underneath Mopac and made our way up Exposition, across on 35th Street, and then up Shoal Creek, finding a turnaround point that would give us about 10 miles for the day, and then retracing our steps back to the start. It was hotter than usual this morning, and very humid, so we suffered a little more than we have.
The first miles were in the early morning darkness, and we eased our way through the hilly Exposition and 35th Street portions, making it to the Powerade stop on Shoal Creek just north of 35th Street in good fashion. That was about 3.8 miles, at an average pace of 9:57/mile. That's a lot slower than we've been going on these runs, but the weather made us slow down a good bit, I think. Feeling pretty good, our merry band went up Shoal Creek, and conveniently found that Hancock was a pretty exact turnaround spot, somewhere around 5.1 miles. We touched the transformer box there and started the journey home. The conversation on Shoal Creek was largely about what the purpose, if any, was for the new "planters" that the city has built in the middle of the parking/bike lane on the sides of Shoal Creek. Seems that they're just there to annoy cyclists to me.
Anyway, back at the Powerade stop (today it was not quite the usual superstrength version
The finishing bit was harder than going out, with some nasty little hills on 35th (the overpass), and on Exposition. Liliana and Alex started feeling pretty spry about a mile and a half to the finish, and picked it up a good bit. I hung back maybe 30 yards from them for a long time, and then they kicked it up another notch, leaving me in the middle of the gang as we strung along back to the finish. Amy and Diana formed the last group, just a little bit behind me. We obviously got a lot quieter once we got back to Exposition.
I pushed a little coming home, and finished pretty strong. My final tally was 10.21 miles at an average 9:25/mile pace, with my last miles at 9:02, 8:29, and .75 miles at 8:09 pace. Not bad. I'll be really ready for Freescale training to start this year, instead of having to play catchup the first couple of months like I did last year. If you include the water stop time, the overall pace dropped to 9:50/mile, which is still in the good training range for a long run, considering my theoretical marathon goal pace.
I was a little dizzy at the finish, largely because I think I was feeling the effects of only getting a couple hours of sleep last night (just restless, but it was really annoying). After I slugged down my Endurox, I felt a lot better. The stretching was near the tennis courts there by Austin High School, since the AHS football team was out for an early morning practice on their field. That was fun as usual. After that, I joined a bunch of the fall marathoners for a cold soak at Deep Eddy in the nice chilly waters from that natural spring. Except for the girly scream that you make when you first get in the water, it's a great thing, reducing any inflammation in your legs and helping you feel a lot better for the drive back home. There were probably 15 of us there at Deep Eddy, and it was a lot of fun just to hang out in the cool waters chatting with all the gang.
It was a treat to put on nice dry clothes after the swim/soak, and I felt really great going home. I believe this makes about a couple dozen nice days at the running office in a row, and I'd be happy if that streak continues.
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