Running with Jack

Yesterday afternoon we had beautiful 28C/83F weather, sunny, light breeze, blue sky – a great day for a run. My wife had an evening class last night so I suited up and was out the door about 4 p.m. My goal was to try to maintain around a 5:45/K (9:18/M) pace for my 14K/8.7M loop. The first kilometer went a lot slower than this, I was quite stiff from climbing up and down the ladder all day on Tuesday. But as I warmed up the stiffness left and I was able to pick up the pace. I completed the first 10K in 54:45, a respectable pace for me, at least considering I had just run a marathon four days before. The last couple kilometers were tough, I had to push to keep the tempo going. In any case I finished with an average pace of 5:25/K (8:42/M) for the 14K. After cooling down, stretching and eating I was good to go – I wish I had run farther.

Today I went for a 18K/11.2M bike ride in an attempt to find a new running trail. In the end I decided I already am running the best route around, so will continue using this until I find something better.

Tomorrow morning I want to get up early (e.g. 5 a.m.) and run my hilly long run – somewhere between 2-3 hours. As I am technically still recovering from my marathon I want to make sure I don’t overdo it. I am still trying to decide whether to do a two week or three week tapering before my 50K. In the latter case this will mean that tomorrow will be my last long run. It will really depend on how I feel tomorrow as I run.