8/27/11 – 15 MILES

Last Saturday’s The Most I’ve Ever Walked in a Long Run run, combined with this never ending heat, broke me. My nagging tendonitis worsened and I decided to take a Short Vacation from Running to get rid of it once and for all.  Our record breaking temperatures continued and I barely left the house all week.  Tuesday rolled around, then Wednesday, then Thursday, and not a day did I run.  I’ve run long enough to know that a week off won’t significantly impact my marathon training, and might actually do some good.

I was right.  Even though I still had some soreness above my left ankle, I had a good 15 mile long run.  We decided to start at 5:30AM, 30 minutes earlier than usual, to stay out of the sun as much as possible.  It was a good tactic and we all ran much better than last week.  Bill and I resolved to keep our pace slower at the start so we wouldn’t crash and burn the last few miles like we have been doing.  It’s taken us all summer to figure this out the hard way, but we really do have to slow down more than usual when the temperatures

There was a tiny sliver of moon in the sky, which meant it was a dark start to the run.  Even though it was projected to be 79 degrees at the start,  it was 84 when we started and fairly humid, and we were drenched by the time we got down to the lake.

Our route took us the reverse of an old DRC route we used to run, but we still had the privilege of running up through Lakewood and down Swiss.  I’ll take running down Swiss, as opposed to that long,  gradual slog uphill, any day.  Next we ran through ‘da hood’ over to McKinney and Turtle Creek, then through everybody’s personal favorite, Highland Park, aka The Bubble– scene of many hassles in the past from the HP police because they demanded we run on the sidewalks, not the street, stalking us in their police SUV’s, and generally looking and acting like they didn’t have enough to keep them busy other than hassling predawn runners.  (I only mention this because their behavior really was quite ridiculous.)

I needed a good run and I got it.  Genevieve, Bill, and Heather really kept me going.  I celebrated with an ice cold 9AM beer afterwards–a first for me.

For the rest of Saturday I was pretty much wiped out.  I tried to nap but, as usual, it just didn’t happen.  Later that night, as I rolled over in bed, I was aware that my quads were sore.  Really sore.  Like I-just-ran-a-race sore.  This surprised me since we had purposely kept the pace very conservative.  Sunday I hobbled around and realized my week off  did have some repercussions, and my sore quads were the small price I paid.  I used it as a good excuse to spend the day lounging on the couch with my Kindle.

The tendonitis, however, is gone.  I only wish I had spent my Short Vacation from Running someplace a little more scenic, a little more beachy, and a lot less hot.

Stats:  15 miles @ 9:56 pace – 84 degrees and humid at the start