Weekend Runs - Loving every minute of it!

Saturday I had a bad start to the day.
First, at 4:45am I stepped on fresh dog poop in the middle of the street/parking lot while taking karma out to poop. (in my running shoes, no less)
Second, it took me 13 mins to find my watch. Somehow I put it down in a diferent place, and had to shake up the entire home to find it.
Third, due to my watch and poop cleanup delay, I drove like a mad man to rogue, yet, I still showed up over 30 mins early because I never read the 6am start time instead the usual 5:30. Doh!

The run itself was a completely different story. As usual it takes a good 4 or 5 miles to fully warmup up and feel good, but once we were past 30-40 minutes, I felt great. (My protein adjustment seems to already be paying dividends!)

On the schedule was 16 or 18 mile EASY long run. I opted for 18 as I've been doing the high mileage option every week, so I don't see a point in changing that strategy. Most of my colleagues were either OUT due to mysterious injuries, or ran on Friday to free up their weekends due to the Music Festival in town. (I opted to skip the music, as i just couldn't defeat the idea of nightmarish parking, spending the money (ticket, parking, food, expensive beer and water) and fighting the sun for 3 straight days out of my head.
Plus, I've done it before, and I've realized that I just don't do well being confined to a park with 60-80 thousand other people. Just stresses me out more than it calms me.

Anyway, the run was GREAT! Weather was perfect, and Damon, his brother Dustin and I ran the following splits without ever feeling like we were pushing the pace.

1 - 8:18
2 - 7:54
3 - 7:48
4 - 8:02
5 - 8:15
6 - 7:58
7 - 7:57
8 - 7:50
9 - 8:01
10 - 7:37
11 - 7:18
12 - 7:26
13 - 7:37
14 - 7:24
15 - 7:34
16 - 7:40
17 - 7:22
18 - 7:31

{ 3:10 marathon = 7:15/m }
{ 3:15 marathon = 7:24/m }

The cool part about this run, is I had no idea were were holding lower-mid-sevens for that long (Including up Scenic until Damon told me at mile 16 that the prior mile was a 7:34. I consciously slowed down a tad, hence the pedestrian 7:40.
I think my email exchange with Damon sums up our run to perfection:

Me: Nice! Sure didn't feel that fast at all to me.
Damon: Sure didn't -- felt nice and relaxed throughout.

After my saturday run, I promptly drove home, hopped in the shower and loaded up the car with the grill, table, beer water cooler and food coolers. Showed up at the tail gate by 10:20am and had great fun in the sun till 1:45pm when it was time to head up to the game. Boy did those Miller Lites go down easy. My friend Panther commented on how weird it is that you can drink beers continuously for several hours and feel like all you've had is water. I kind of agreed, but realized he was well ahead of me on number of libations!
Thank god the 2nd half of the game was in the shade, because it was so friggin' boring, because the SEC has such pathetic teams that I would have left at half time had the sun not crept behind the stadium.
Got home at 7pm, un loaded everything out of the car, unpacked the coolers, showered and was on my couch by 7:30 to watch about 45 minutes of the Georgia Alabama game before I fell asleep and woke up at the start of the 4th quarter. Pressed record on the DVR and went to bed.

Sunday - Met up with Meredith, Jo Dee and Flyer(pronounced: super fast and ridiculously energetic wonder dog) for a fun 7 mile greenbelt trail run from the hill of life. Weather was perfect, company was great and our pace was healthy good. (not too slow but not too fast). Finished off the run without stopping on the Hill of Life climb. Woo hoo!
A wise Tibetan monk once told me:

HILLS make you STRONG LIKE BULL.

Usually I take it too hard and fade prior to reaching the top, but not today. Slow and steady tames the HOL!

Home, showered, and ready to watch the 4th Quarter of the Georgia Alabama game followd by College Football Gameday Recap from this morning (5:30am - 6:30am) after that. (That's a MUST RECORD show ever week!)

I end the week with 71.3 miles, and feeling GREAT! which is right where I wanted to be. No more of this 50 mile / week lolly-gagging for me.
I've ended every 50 mile week feeling slow, heavy legged, injured and sluggish. What a difference protein a week makes!


(thanks for the GPS splits, Damon)