Monday, September 29, 2008

A Tale of Three Cities

Wow, seems like forever since I updated this thing, but guess it's only been a week. During that time I've run in KC, Austin, and St. Louis. So let's review the runs in order.

Monday was a day for running here at home, a nice easy 5-miler. Nothing remarkable about it, other than it was nice to run in familiar surroundings.

Tuesday was another run along the Colorado River in Austin. I was going to do a 24-minute tempo run but ended up doing about 15 minutes in 90 degree heat. I think that surprised me a little because even though I went 6 miles the tempo run pretty much kicked my rear. One problem was lack of hydration. Since I had flow in that day I didn't drink as much as I usually do so I wouldn't have to spend the flights wearing out the carpet to the spacious restroom at the rear of the planes. I like Austin's running paths, though, and in some areas there was a nice amount of shade.

I skipped Thursday due to traveling home, and it was fortunate since I caught an earlier flight and made it home by 8:30 as opposed to my originally scheduled arrival at midnight.

Saturday's 14-mile run with Alan was in St. Louis along the Mighty Mississippi, a path I ran during last year's training. We started in the late morning hours and even though it didn't get horribly hot it was certainly warm enough to slow us down. Alan's heel was bothering him, so we shut it down and walked the last mile in order to live to run another day. Some shade along that route definitely would have been nice, but alas it seems to be more of a bicycle path than anything else. Not that they don't need shade, but I think there's a difference.

Today it was back home with a nice easy 5-mile run to Target. The air is cooler and fall is definitely on the way. I enjoyed the nice breeze. The next few weekends are some mighty big runs (18 and 20 miles), so I need to gear up mentally for those. Sleeping in my own bed after so many days on the road will be a good start.

No comments: