Duck

We're in Duck. We came down late Thursday night so that we could do wedding things yesterday. I went running when I woke up. There were about 15 mph winds and it was in the low 40s. I'm glad that I decided against wearing a long sleeved shirt while I ran. The sun was very warm and when I was on my way out, the wind was at my back so I was very warm. But on the way back, it was a whole different story.

Yesterday is the day that I realized how much a 2.0 mph wind can help a sprinter. I always thought that it was so minimal. But I didn't even realize that there WAS wind yesterday while I had it at my back. My splits out were something like 6:48, 6:35, 6:14, and 6:21. I was trying to slow down because I knew I had to come back, but I had NO idea how much that wind was really pushing me. I turned around and it was like getting slapped in the face. I wish I'd had on my heart rate monitor so that I could have seen how hard I was actually working. The first mile back in was around 6:25-- much faster than I expected it to be-- so I decided to make a go of it and try to get in a tempo workout of sorts. Mile 6 was 6:11, I believe. So I really pushed it for mile 7, deciding that I'd use the last mile as a cool down. That mile was less windy because I was back in the cover of some trees from the neighborhoods, but when I'd get out of the cover and get hit by a gust it would just about knock me over. A couple times I felt myself sliding off the pace and had to remember to push it. So I finished the 7th mile in 5:44. My marathon PR pace. The cool down mile felt like walking. It was 6:54. I averaged 6:25 for the whole run. It would have been nice to have done that without such extremes, but I got my heart rate up.

My left knee area was a little sore during the last 3/4 of the run. So I made sure to stretch and used the stick afterwards.

Now it's 7:37am on Saturday morning. I'm going to run, KC is going to get her hair done, and then we're driving back to Fredericksburg for my cousin Kenny's wedding this afternoon. The weather at home is 20 degrees, feels like 9. Here it's 30 degrees, feels like 20. Not exciting either way. I'm hoping I brought the right clothes to get the job done. I wonder how long I'll run, too. It's going to suck running with the wind today. I plan to go long tomorrow with Pat and Justin, so I don't need to worry about doing that today. Granted I still think I took 2 days off this week... I've gotta stop doing that.

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