Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Virtual Running Club Meets

This week the Virtual Running Club held a meeting in St. Louis. The occasion was reputedly for Alan's birthday, but in reality it was to run. The running itself actually went about as well as the Cardinals' games we attended. Swept by the Cubs? Depressing. As the Cubs supporter sitting to my right at the ballpark was leaving last night he said good-bye and I said, "Now I know what a Cubs fan feels like." He had been only semi-obnoxious but he was definitely mostly-drunk, and so of course he didn't realize I'd just burned him, and not for the first time during the evening. I can be subtle when it's called for. Beats the last time I went to a game when the Cubs were in town and I was yelling at the hecklers a few rows in front of us that they should drink up, because if I was a Cubs fan I'd be an alcoholic, too. But enough about that subject.

We ran alongside the Mississippi on Tuesday morning, and as I alluded to, the run was not a good one. The plan was to run 8 miles with six of those at marathon pace. The day turned out to be not only hotter than we'd been led to expect, but it was also quite humid. Being the experienced runners we are, we quickly adapted our plan. First we slowed the pace a little, and then we cut the run shorter, finishing with 5.5 miles as the total. Of course, I could also blame the evening before and the not-so-good sleep we got, but I think we could have toughed out a few more miles if the weather hadn't been so hot.

Today's run back home went better, but it's still too warm to do the speedwork according to plan. I ran a mile warmup, and then started in on a tempo run. I got 1.5 miles into that before realizing I should slow down if I expected to finish. That's what I did, and was able to finish. Again, not a great run, but some of that is probably still self-inflicted. Now that the fun and games are past and the Cardinals are going to miss the postseason, it's time to buckle down and get in some good training. Cooler weather will help, too. The next meeting of the Virtual Running Club is planned for the Des Moines Marathon in October. Until then, we'll be running together apart.

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