Dragons

Before I get to doing this -- if anyone wants to cut a Dragon a break and score me a way into Saturday's Everybody Runs Carondolet Half-Marathon and 5k (the 5k section) I would be uber-appreciative.

That said, yesterday was the final scheduling straw and, come this weekend, I'll be happy to get back in a classic training rhythm. Due to the efforts of Wednesday ending at about 11:30 at night, I wasn't one to get up and yog in the morning. Instead, I planned my run for the afternoon before the Clinton-Pederson rally. Unfortunately, my lack of sleep along with the labor of clearing out the shed and moving my old swamp cooler down to the yard pretty much left me in the zone to just pass out until we left for a meal at Let's Go Tortas en route to the rally at Reid Park.

The rally was supposed to begin at 6:30 but the three main dudes that would be speaking -- Clinton, Pederson, and Napalatono -- didn't arrive from Phoenix until 7:30 to get this party started. For their entrance song, I was disappointed to hear them play U2's 'Beautiful Day'. I think the Republican's should have U2 play at their rallies as well. A little "Stuck in a Moment" seems perfect. On the other hand though, I think the Dems should be rocking some Three-Six Mafia, "Let's Plan a Robbery."

Anyways, after 3 hours of standing I felt pretty tired and unexcited about the idea of going running. Fortunately, my training partner and fellow Dragon, Train, coaxed me out the door where we headed north-east. His cruise-control-like pace brought us through the second mile of the five mile loop in 14:02. I was optimistic to see this time as I really expected my legs to just be useless for this run. Here we split as he had to turn his run into an out-and-back to pick up his shirt that was resting on one of those electric boxes on Campbell while I continued down 3rd to Country Club.

After Train left me, I could feel my legs starting to complain about me not getting off them for much of the afternoon. I decided that if I could just keep it under 7:10 pace for the last 3 miles, we'd call it a success. I hit mile three at 20:38 (6:36 mile) and decided to try to just keep it under 7:00 for the last couple miles. My legs felt tired but mile 4 was generally sloped downhill and 5 was basically flat. Shooting for something like 6:59 miles, I hit those in 6:47 and 6:27. The final mile surprised me very much as I suspected that I was really easing up in that section. Maybe it's a sign that my legs are started to get used to turning over and absorbing some shock.

While I fear I may not be scoring for Dragons at the Turkey Trot, I'm beginning to believe that I may actually improve on my less-than-winning 18:31 performance from last year. And I would consider that a step in the right direction.