you kick the bucket, i'll swing my legs

6 Sundays to the Marathon.

This week I opted out of the tempo and speed workouts. It just couldn't happen. Instead of taking another zero Friday I ran a dismally slow (9:10 avg) 9 miles. It was really no problem this time to run slowly, the problem was walking afterward. I limped to a late dinner (Friday is date night in our home) a bit bummed because this was the week where I had hoped to add a Saturday easy run.

My friend Albert called me in the afternoon to ask if I'd be up for a Sunday long run. He is good running company. A running talker. His Dutch accent makes everything he says worth listening to. If only to make sure I get it right the first time. He is 62 and an elite grandmaster. A late bloomer with only 5 years or so of running under his feet (like my friend Karen). A former smoker (like my friend Karen). And he smokes all my PR's by light years (like my friend Karen).

I'm limping around at the parade when he called. "Sure", I say. "I'll meet you at 6 but I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to run, maybe 8:30 pace at best".

So I wanted to do 22 dirge pace miles and committed to try 17 of them with him. I woke up earlier than usual to ice, heat pack, stretch, hydrate, advil, and pray. We headed out at and ran the standard death march pace opening mile. I vowed not to check my pace but to relax and use conversation as the effort barometer. Luckily we had a lot to catch up on and between the 3 of us (Robin was on the bike again. . . yeah!!) talked non-stop.

I allowed myself a glimpse at the garmin at 5 miles and estimated that we were under 8mm pace average. We carried on this way for the remainder of the morning. I nixed the notion of the additional 5 miles. I was happier to finish the run faster than we started and not push the mileage. We wound up with 17 miles flat at 8:02 average pace and that is ok with me.

Of course the advil wore off during breakfast and I've spent the rest of the day symmetrically out of whack (tilted on my right arse cheek) but nothing is perfect.