This week has been an interesting one for me. At a recent local event, I met someone who is part of a group that runs together at least once a week. This past Sunday, I got to join them. I'm the youngest of the group (by at least ten years), and apparently also one of the slowest (though not by so much).
As my friend was telling me about the others in the group, he mentioned a 62 year old woman. Admittedly, my first thought was the older composition of the group would put them more at my speed. Until he continued by saying that back in '84 she competed at the Olympic trials.
Long story made short, we did a just over 10 mile run, and my average pace ended up just below the 10:00 mark... far and away the fastest I've ever done over that distance. So, that was awesome. As we were chatting afterwards, come to find out my friend is actually the father of one of my coworkers... I felt silly for not having put two and two together before that.
Monday I took the day off work both to spend a little extra time with the kids before school, and also to get in another long run. I ended up completing 15 miles in about 2:40 (10:40 pace approx), finishing with a strong 8:00 mile (and feeling like I could alternately have gone several more miles if time allowed). Long story short, I came off this back-to-back feeling very very good about an upcoming half this Saturday. (No, I didn't taper at all...)
Took yesterday off, and am doing the same today (may do some basic strength tonight, though), will do a long cross-training tomorrow, and a short (1-2 mile) run on Friday just to keep things moving.
