Post Va Beach runs

I didn’t run on Sunday morning as I only arrived back to Barrie at 12:30am from Va Beach. I drove for 19 hours with having only at a 6 inch vegetarian sub from subway and some Gatorade. Nope, there was no way I was running.
Tuesday I was all set to run trails. I got home at an appropriate time. I grabbed the dogs headed out the door for a quick walk in the woods. I wasn’t taking Mika on the run as it was far too hot & humid for that. We had just walked into the woods when Kees went dashing off in chase of a chipmunk. Halfway through the walk I thought I was being followed by a skunk, turns out the chipmunk used a skunk for self defense. ACK. There goes Trails. He got spayed in and around the mouth, so… I had to take some care in administering my concoction of peroxide, baking soda & dishwashing detergent.
Wednesday nights 9.3 K run was fantastic. The first half was a bit shakey, but by the 4 k mark I was feeling the love, my groin only ached a tad.
I finished off very strong and well ahead of the others. Not that that is important, I just mean that I was able to run with out stopping and I could pick up the pace comfortably.
My speed work went very well. I managed to stay very consistent in my 3 x 800m runs. I should have done 4 but I miscalculated.

Sunday’s long run became Saturday’s long run. Shannon & I went around 5:45 am for a 25K jaunt along the rail trail. It’s not exciting or sexy as far as route, but when getting back into the distance thing, it does just jim-dandy. We did the distance that’s what counts, the out to the 4th line went really well. The bugs were awful around there holy crap. Those horseflies were inconceivably large & determined. So were we – TO GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE.
The sun was just starting to peek through the trees when we left, now at the half way mark we could feel it was going to be a hot one. By the time we hit Range Rd it was sweltering and we were more than grateful for the shade provided by the trees. We were running 3 k & walking 1 min. It seemed to be going well. Our pace would range from 5:45 – 6:30 depending on what we were talking about at the time. LOL. However; as we hit the 17 k mark we were starting to run in silence. Shannon hadn’t been running much and this was the furthest she had done since March.
Though we both had Kevin in our heads providing us with different pieces of advice, man did we laugh when we confided that to each other. Ahaha.
After we got off the rail trail and back on to Ridge Rd things were starting to stiffen up, by the time we hit the new side walk near the trail entrance off Blake/Ridge Rd I had to take a bit of an elongated walk break. Then back on for the last 3 k. We took another two walk breaks.. K’s 22-23 were not pretty, not by any stretch of the imagination. However; by about 24k we were back in business and managed to whip out a good steady clip-clop. We did 25 in 2:49 which is perfect for a long slow run. Hopefully we’ll be able to get out a bit earlier next Saturday. I’d like to do about 30K.
Our goal, that’s Shannon & myself, is to run to Orillia one Saturday morning very early in the next 4 weeks. I want to have my runs for the next while consistently over 35k.