Easy Runnin'

This morning, I drove, bleary-eyed, down to RunTex for a recovery run with my friends. I had doubts about how I'd feel on the run, given how sleepy I was, but staggered out of the truck anyway. The huge Tu/Th Gazelles group was milling about, but I found Frank, Shannon and Richard for our little run. We took off right before the other Gazelles did, and we were soon swarmed and then passed by various groups of the larger herd. They were off on their fartlek workout, and we did all we could to keep our easy pace as they roared around us. The storm had passed by the end of the first mile, and from there, it was a very pleasant run. It was good to see Richard again, now that he's finished their move into a new house. Our course for the day was the portion of the Longhorn Dam loop that lies to the east of First Street. We figured it would be nice to check out some terrain that wasn't painfully familiar to us. It was pleasant out there once we crossed the I-35 overpass, and we had a good time. I was a little distressed during the first mile, but settled in after that, and the run ended up being very comfortable. We were drenched, of course, but that's just the way it is here this time of year.

One water stop behind the Holly power plant, maybe a minute, and other than that, it was a straight run. I ended up clocking 6.8 miles, about 63 minutes, for 9:18/mile pace today. We finished things off with some striders at Auditorium Shores (I did 6 of them), and chatted a bit with some of the larger pack of Gazelles as they did the same.

Alex said that the group really cranked the fartleks today, so I guess it's just what happens when we get lots of new runners who want to prove to themselves that they belong or something. I can vouch for the fact that you feel like you should be running pretty quickly when you join the Gazelles. I was the slowest Gazelle for a while when I joined, and it's sometimes intimidating. You're made to feel welcome, but as a runner, you like to fit in with the crowd. Hopefully, the Gazelles, both old and new, will settle down in a week or so.

Stuck around for stretching, which felt really good, and I was off to the gym. Alex showed me a couple of new and evil core exercises that I might add to my routine, but they are tough!

Gymnatique

After a Clif Bar on the way up to Gold's, I made my way through the regular Core / Leg workout. I increased the reps on the Roman Chair exercises, and added time to the various plank exercises, so that was a big improvement. I bumped up the weight on the calf raises (both kinds), but other than that, it was a status quo sort of day. I could tell that my legs were tired once I got to the last exercise, leg press. I did the full set/rep numbers, but those last few reps were the work of a tired set of legs.

Tomorrow, no running, and all that's on my exercise schedule is a gym visit for core and upper body. Should be fun!