After a speed session yesterday, it was time for a recovery day today. Since it is Thursday, that also meant a LVRR Group Run. It was the usual 5 miles.
We were missing Peter and Jeff, but Kelley and Akshay were still there. We also added a new woman to the group, Jen. She didn't know her way around the Parkway, so I was glad that Akshay stayed with her for the run. I took off with Kelley.
There were some pretty significant thunderstorms in the afternoon. We just finished the family hike before they started. When the group run began, it was hot and humid though. I wanted to go out easy and it did feel easy, but the pace was faster than I would've liked. I figured I might pay for it a little later on.
Kelley and I cruised along for a few miles. Before I knew it, we were near 3 miles into the run and at the big hill near the Fish Hatchery. Because of the humidity and the fact that it was a recovery day, I tried to go up the hill easy. I'm not sure that was a good idea. Going slower just seems to make it harder actually. I think in the future, I just need to attack the hills and go easy the rest of the run.
With me going easy, Kelley pulled away. I was huffing and puffing when I got to the top. I didn't fly downhill like I usually do. Kelley kept getting farther away. My pace before the hill was 8:19 and after the hill, it went to 8:25. That was still faster than I would've liked, but much easier.
I decided that either Kelley was going to slow down and wait for me and we'd run the rest of the run slower or she'd fly away. It turned out to be the latter. I certainly could've stayed with her, but I didn't want to push at all to do so. She said she was feeling great so she kept going. I wrote yesterday that it must've looked like I was killing her when I was ahead of her leading hard repeats yesterday. Well at least today it would've looked the opposite. She was so far ahead by the end that I'm sure it didn't look like we were ever running together.
I continued to run around the same effort. My pace stayed the same too. I didn't attack the next big hill, or the first of the final two. On the final hill, I did push and it felt so much better. It is basically all downhill after that, so I cruised to the finish and ran a pretty fast final mile. Kelley was already well finished.
I passed Akshay and Jen going out on the flat section towards the Fish Hatchery. They did about the same mileage and wisely skipped the hill. I hope with Akshay running with her, that Jen will return. One of our new runners from last week didn't come this week. Maybe he'll join us in the future. We need to get more people coming back.
I wanted to get together afterward to eat, but no one was interested this week. Maybe in the future. I think it can be a fun little social addition to the group runs.
I ran easy just like I wanted. It is amazing that an 8:23 pace is now easy, when just a 1.5 to 2 months ago we ran an 8:18 pace and that was hard and exhausting. I'm progressing well. I wore the old shoes today and I'm not too sore afterward either. That's good sign. Tomorrow will be a short day. Saturday I plan on 11 miles, probably with the Breakfast Club Runners. It has been another solid week that is nearly complete.
5 miles - 41:53 (8:23 pace)
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