Ummm, Recovery? Yeah, Right

After IMCdA I got a couple good days of, well, driving home, which ended up being about as difficult as the race with the GEEKGRL blissfully fading in and out of sleep next to me as I white knuckled it down the highway staring wide eyed at the road. We got home on Tuesday evening and I rode my bike in to work on Wednesday morning after an easy 1000 meter swim. The bike ride was an easy spin and it really did feel good to be back on my old familiar path as I peddled past the General Mills facility where they crank out batch after batch of Coco Puffs or some other wonderfully smelling chocolaty breakfast cereal. I then peddled past a large grouping of chocolate flowers and yes, they do smell quite a bit like chocolate and are very fragrant. So, as you can see with a ride to work filled with hot air balloons over head and the smell of chocolate in the air I’m not all that inclined to drive. I did take another recovery day on Thursday and Friday I rode my bike in once again but Saturday, now that’s a different story.

The GeekGrl and I got up and headed out to meet some fellow Outlaws that we haven’t been able to ride with since training for CdA began. They were doing some crazy brick workout where they ride about 10 miles, run 20 minutes, ride 10 miles, run 20 minutes, ride 10 miles and run a final 20 minutes. This is supposed to all be done at sprint pace. I’m not ready to run like that so I just headed out for the first portion of the bike with them and then pealed off on my own. I was just going to ride for 3 hours not wanting to commit to any specific distance and I ended up getting in a fraction over 61 miles in 3 hours and four minutes. I felt like my legs were coming back nicely and it felt great to be back out on the open road.

However, my big news is my run. Saturday night was my first ever night run. I stayed up doing whatever it is that I do all day Saturday and left the house at 10:30 at night to drive down to the Bosque trail. The Bosque trail is nice and flat and has a well maintained gravel road right next to it. The trail runs right along the Rio Grande too so the humidity is higher. These are pretty much the exact conditions I will be racing in at the El Scorcho 50K and the Lean Horse 100 miler. According to Garmin I began my run at 44 seconds past 10:41 p.m. The goal for this run, aside from night running, was to start training in my 100 mile running pace, which I hope to be 14 minute miles the first 50 and no slower than 14:47 minute miles the second 50. That might sound slow but it will be no easy task as those paces would bring me to the finish line in 23 hours, 59 minutes and 10 seconds and that is my dream goal but what the heck, my dream goal for IMCdA was 12:45 and I beat that so why not try.

Anyway, I ended up running a faster 13:26 average pace for a total of 13.48 miles in just over 3 hours ending at about 1:45 a.m. It was kind of weird having the dark trail completely to myself but I felt comfortable the whole time. I couldn’t really tell if I was getting sleepy or just tired from running but all in all it wasn’t too bad. I did discover that it was easier for me to run in a straight line than it was for me to walk in a straight line. It’s not like I was wobbling all over the place but when I did misstep or loose my line it was always while walking. I also discovered that when you are wearing a head lamp and you take a drink the light bounces off the bottle and blinds the eye on the side from which you are drinking…maybe I should rig and Aero Drink to my chest.

Onward and upward!