AM: 4.43 miles in the rain, really slow pace (8:35 pace). Sports massage. Bone below outer knee tender, he said it's not the actual knee but attachments on the bone down there that are niggly. PM: met Alison and her crew for an evening run. Ali was doing 40K and it was her birthday, so she had family and friends there to support her and then we were going to have dinner after. I only needed 29k. I sat out her 5k warm up, then joined her. She had to go faster than me (4-4:20 for the bulk of the ks) while I just needed 5k fast finish on 29k. We did 8k together where we were trying to maintain 4:20, and we averaged 4:18. Then she had to speed up, and I chillaxed, averaging 4:24 for the next 16k. Had two bathroom stops, my body was not very happy. Ali had about 4 bikers on the trail supporting her, including Coach Paul. The friends cheered for her, the coach called out splits and encouragement. It was so wonderful. All things must come to an end, and I turned when I should have gone straight at about 16k, so missed any support after that. I had to stop at bathrooms to get water instead of being handed water--I think I am already getting spoiled by the experience. My pace slowed to 4:30 or so, thus the 4:24 ave pace. Then last 5k needed 3:55 ave pace, started after 24k. My first k was 4:00, tried to ease into it, sure wishing I had another gu (took one at about 12k). Did 3.55, 3.54, 3.53, 3.55 and done. Walked back to the track where Ali's support team was quite worried about me. There was quite the collection of food to celebrate Ali and her mother's birthdays. I had one slice of pizza, some pasta, a sushi piece, I declined the four varieties of cake (told Ali that it's not my bday, plus I didn't run 40k). I did pick up some chocolate milk on the way home--that was my treat. Not a stellar workout, but solid and did what I needed to. It was very humid, more than usual, so sweated a ton.
| 