28 Down, 24 to go

After yesterday's 50k, I expected that my legs would be shot today. Whether it would have been from the hills, the heat or the distance, I expected to have jello legs. But I didn't. Not sure why. But I won't complain.

Woke up about 5:00 a.m. for a 6 a.m. run. Today I met my TNT folks out for our weekly team run. Because of the 4th falling on Friday, we anticipated that many participants would rather run on Sunday than Saturday. And when we showed up and had 20+ runners, we knew we were right. But before they met us at 7:00 for the run, several coaches and I met for 4 miles first.

The first 4 miles went well. We held a nice steady 10:15 pace. It was already getting warm. I could tell the temperatures would quickly reach the 90's as forcasted.

The next 9 miles were run with the team. I joined up with some run-walkers on a 4-1 plan. That is 4 minutes of running with a minute of walking. When running, we averaged about 10:30 miles. Total miles were around 12 min/miles. Not a bad pace at all, considering the heat.

And this sort of running walking I think is fantastic training for my upcoming 100 miler. I plan to do a fair share of walking during that race, starting at mile one. So having a slow run with walk breaks is just fine. And it keeps me on my feet for longer. Not a bad thing.

After those 9 miles (13 total), Laura (who will be joining me at the Heartland 100 in October), Pam, Amanda and I ran another 4 miles. We stuck to an "outside" loop at the park that has no shade. By 9:30, the temperature was already 86 degrees. And rising.

Pam and Amanda dropped off (as planned) after that 4 mile loop. Great job to both of them, as neither had planned to be out their that long. Thank you to both for just being their for Laura and I.

Laura and I continued. Actually, we were feeling great. The only problems were 2: first, the heat and the lack of shade; second, the monotony of loop around a small park. But we kept up our spirits, and kept to the best shaded areas of the park. This meant 3 more loops around a 3 mile section.

We kept going. Kept drinking. And kept going. The last few miles took some time, especially considering the length of time we took refueling and hydrating between loops. But we kept going.

5:35. Not a great time if you are counting, but I am not. I considered this a huge success, especially considering the heat. And didn't I mention yesterday that I am not a good heat runner?

28 "marathons" on the year down, 24 to go!