Very, very good run. Nice shot of confidence with two weeks left in the taper.
Easily the coldest morning so far this morning, cold enough that my wife questioned my sanity in running with the sniffles I've had this week. It was 25 degrees when I met Michelle and Michael at the Surgical Hospital. A friend of Michelle's from Dallas was supposed to meet us there but didn't make it, and we left at 5:10 or so (she showed up later, I think, and ran with the Crackheads). Clear, no wind, just cold. And we set off slowly, well over 10:00 pace. Legs felt good. Through the hills, around the Joe K. Poch Loop, back down to the river, still generally a slow pace with a little bit of surge on the loop.
Then, shortly befre I was supposed to turn around and leave those other two (they were going 18), Michelle and Michael both slowed to a walk, and I just kept going. Then I accelerated up the hill past the wooden bridge, hit the turnaround at the quarry, and kept going, hard. Michelle said stuff like "nice run" when I saw them again a few hundred yards later. Michael said "have I told you how much you suck?" which made me crack up. I suck to him because I'm a lot faster than he is, and he knows it, and I know how hard I worked to get this fast. In his abusive way, that was a heckuva compliment.
Anyway, back down the hill to the wooden bridge, over the bridge, past the golf course and the concrete bridge and the dog park and the soccer field, and I'm still running fast. At the soccer fields, the 12-milers come back from their Poch loop, and now I'm passing them left and right. Past the field where the Boy Scouts camped and the skunk was ready to blast me a few weeks ago. Turned on to Campbell Lake, still passing people left and right, and still going hard. But a comfortable hard. I'm not straining at all, just smoothly running at MP, maybe a little faster. Turned off Campbell Lake, up the path to the back of the hospital, around the hospital and back to the car. Last four miles plus at marathon pace. And it was still 28 degrees when I got through, after 2:33 and 15.14 miles.
About 45 miles this week as the taper really kicks in. I can definitely feel the difference now. My legs do not feel like I ran 15 this morning, much of it hard. | 