Grove Loop [Entered 9/4/06]

Saturday morning, way too soon after last night's race effort, we gathered at RunTex for a nice relaxing run on the Grove loop. We got to sleep in for the 6:00am start, but I was still a little short on sleep. I just couldn't settle down last night after the race. Oh, well. I was also a couple of pounds lighter this morning than on Friday morning, due mostly to last night's race, I expect. Knowing that, I'd keep close tabs on how I felt to make sure I didn't outrun my body's ability to cope.

It was a pretty small crew who showed up today, mostly due to last night's race, I guess. Plus, this was a "recovery" long run, so therefore theoretically not quite as important as most long runs. I decided early that I'd follow along with the pace set by others as much as I could, and I'd decide on my distance as we got close to the various bridges. Off we went.

It was a leisurely start, and I settled in with Brian, Brad, Jan, guest runner Alex, Emily and Rachel. Renee was there as well, with Jennifer and some other folks. Most of my regular non-Chicago group was absent today. We rolled along and after a couple of miles, we had established a consistent pace in the 9:05/mile range. It was almost metronomic. The weather was slightly more hospitable than usual, and that helped everyone relax into the workout. About 4.5 miles into the run, we reached the Powerade/water stop over at ACC, and we all tanked up. I even took my one GU, just because I had it with me. Given the number of people who seemed to be around our pace, it took a while to get finished with the water stop, but we got going before we had to start paying rent on that space on the sidewalk. :-)

I sprang a bunch of songs on the group today, trying to find ones that would stick like glue to their brains. After that first water stop, I tossed out Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" and "Fire," and in a particularly cruel move, I even suggested Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me," which has the immortal lyric, "I had a dream, I had an awesome dream!" I can still hear the groans when I put that song up for their perusal. :-)

Emily decided that she needed to move a little faster, due to a plane reservation, so she scooted on ahead. Rachel and I stayed together with the other folks. We took another quick stop at Holly Power plant, and then did another couple of miles to the Official Powerade/Water stop just past I-35. By now, we were moving nicely, but Rachel and I were feeling the dead legs that were left over from last night's race. It was going to be a 10 mile day for us.

Alex had had enough of the evil songs, so he moved on ahead as well, and Rachel and I made the turn to cross over at First Street bridge. Rachel went directly to the water coolers, but I was feeling better, so I continued on with a nice little victory lap around Auditorium Shores to boost my mileage just a little. Done.

The numbers: 10.6 miles, 9:14/mile running pace, 9:51/mile with water stop time. Better than last week and the week before, and I think that's mostly due to more favorable weather conditions.

I knocked out 6 striders, which felt pretty good after the first one, and waited on the Chicago folks to finish their 13.5 mile full loop. They came in pretty soon after, and we all had fun doing the stretching routine. It was pretty nice out there once we were done, but I'm sure it was still in the 80's. It's all relative, I guess.

I got persuaded to join Brian, Jan, Alex, Frank and Brad for another cold soak at Barton Springs, and that was wonderful, as usual. That water is COLD when you first hop in, but after that initial shock, it does magic stuff for your legs. We always feel nice and refreshed once we've soaked away for 20-30 minutes there. We saw Christine, Rich and Banjo again, and commiserated with Rich about his newly diagnosed stress fracture. He's got 4 more weeks of aqua running before they let him hit the road again. Today, he did a 2.5 hour aqua jog, and he didn't even go crazy! That's amazing, I'd say.

Anyway, that was the day. We've just got a couple of weeks until the official start of Austin Marathon training, so I plan to enjoy things until then.