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More running!

July 29, 2019 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
After a morning run w/ Linni, an afternoon bike ride down to the podiatrist on K street and back, I was really for my third chance to justify the massive meals I've been indulging in: a fartlek workout in the heat. That said, I wasn't really feeling like pushing myself and definitely still felt a bit sore from those later miles I did w/ Gaba yesterday. I had planned to run with the goofball hurdlers but then as were forming into groups Colleen seemed really intent on telling me about the dead frogs she'd fished out of the pool where she lifeguards, so I figured that was a good enough reason to make it a super-easy run and go with her and Seth Riker, Ethan Burns and a couple STA boys instead.

Turns out there is no such thing a super easy in this heat. However, this group was instructed to just go steady, so the biggest challenged turned out to be not losing people, since all four of these runners are still learning how to pace themselves. Ethan and I used some classic Anthony tactis to keep the group together such as not telling them where we were going (in fact, we were making the rout up as we went along), but after we came out of Glover-Archibald by the McDonalds, I told Ethan to go ahead with the STA boys and I'd hang back with Colleen and Seth. We still finished first somehow. The half hour Anthony told us to stick to somehow become 36 minutes (Colleen claims it was 40), but who's counting?

As I was milling around starting to stretch, Gaba walks up having just returned from his fartlek workout with Mark and asks if I want to do a mile with him at 5k pace. My mind did a quick somersault, rapidly considering all the reasons this was an awesome/horrendous idea, and then before I could think it through to thorough I heard myself instinctively saying "Yes. It'll be good for the soul." You know when someone asks you at 11pm if you wanna get up and go see the sunrise with them? You say yes to that, right? I do. Turned out to not be too overwhelming. Given that I'd briefly stopped out of misery while jogging home at an 11-minute pace this morning in 90-degree heat, cruising uphill at 5:15-5:30 pace somehow felt manageable since I actually was doing it for a purpose (other than getting home faster). I knew Jacob was counting on me to pace him and somehow that gave me the motivation to push myself harder than I have since the Boston marathon this spring. Felt very satisfying afterwards to have run it.

I then went to bed at 10:15pm. A summer PR?