4 miles + 2 Shiners

Topic: Tempo running and tempo drinking
Key Words: Tempo, "Working from Home", Double Fisting
Next Likely Topic: 15 Miles and Some Furniture

I've been saying I would describe my Chicago travel plans for a few days ... but I still don't have Chicago travel plans! Getting close to having them though ....

Last night (Thursday), I went to Memorial and did a tempo run; 1 mile easy, 2 miles hard, 1 mile easy. I wanted to run the easy miles around 10:30 to 11:00, which is the pace I should be running my Saturday long runs, and bang out the fast part in about 9 min/mile. It was kind of hard to keep my foot on the brake, but I did the slow first mile in about 10:45 and then struck out for the fast part. I can say that for the first 3/4 of a mile, I could tell I hadn't ran "fast" since Alaska .... my lungs were protesting. I stuck through it, started my "just run to the next tree" trick, and my body slowly stopped protesting. The next two miles were 8:56 and 8:43. Though I was BLASTED after that (and completely drenched), it was good to run fast. No terrible pain, and today, I feel pretty good. I contribute the two post run Shiners to my legs feeling good today (I took the first one easy, trying to pace myself as if it were a long spell of drinking, then I hit the next one hard, trying to improve on my VBeerMax).

Tomorrow is 15 miles ... I'm not terribly excited! I think it will be a challenge for me given my lack of mileage over the past month. The goal ... nice and slow and even. I hope to make it to at least 12 miles before things get rough.

And for good news ... I'm at home at 2PM on a Friday! We had a lunch downtown, and my planning co-worker asked the boss if we could both head home "to work" after the lunch .... he said sure ... and here I am ... working :o) Actually, I'll double fisting; I have the work laptop up and running in case something comes up.

If you've got running plans this weekend, have a good one!