Feeling Better than Anticipated

I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to take of the entire week after the 50 miler, but I was sort of expecting too.  I’m surprised at how well I recovered.  I felt pretty good on yesterday’s short run and even better today.  We are now in Indianapolis for the Indy 500.

The weather was pretty good.  It was cool and windy in the morning.  By the time the afternoon rolled around, it was more of the same but slightly hotter.  It was fine in the shade, but a bit hot in the sun.  I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt.

We were traveling most of the day yesterday.  I didn’t get much sleep and was tired.  I tried to nap in the afternoon, but had no luck.  Finally, I decided I just needed to get out there.  I wanted to run 8-10 miles, but realistically, I was thinking it would be more like 5 or 6.

I’ve been running here for a few years now, so this race is a yearly event for us.  Last year, I did a long 18 miler here.  I started from Butler University and that worked out good.  I decided to do the same thing again.

I parked near Hinkle Fieldhouse.  I began with a downhill run on pavement and sidewalks.  That was slightly difficult for my legs.  The quads are still a little sore.  Everything else is good.

Within about half a mile, I was onto the canal towpath.  My quads thanked me for that.  It was nice and soft.  I headed south, back towards town.  They were doing a lot of construction on the canal waterway.  I’m not sure if they were dredging it or what.  They were using a lot of pumps.

There were a few people out, but on a Thursday afternoon, it wasn’t too busy.  I passed a cute girl heading the other direction and she smiled at me.  That was nice.

The legs were moving fairly quick.  Mile 1 was 8:13.  That is solid for an opening mile.  Usually, I speed up after that.  I did on this day.

I was thrilled with every mile that I made.  I figured since this was a relatively new place to run, I’d probably enjoy it and the miles would fly by quicker.  That was indeed the case.  Mile 2 was a faster 7:42.

I saw a woman way up ahead.  She was going quite slow, so I decided to try to reel her in.  That led to a 7:27 third mile.  Shortly after that mile, I saw two geese with a baby.  I decided that that was something I didn’t want to mess with.  I turned around earlier than I had hope to.

Luckily, not too far back, I saw some bikers coming from another trail.  I took that route.  It was the White River Greenway.  I thought I had run on it before.  That was indeed the case.  I ran through a neighborhood and then next to the Armory.  Now, I knew where I was.

I then ran by a golf course.  I ran this area either last year or the year before.  I wanted to keep going and going.  The legs did tire of the pavement on this trail.  I passed an area that looked like it was setup for a race of some kind.

Mile 4 was another 7:42.  Finally, I turned around at 4.5 miles.  The combination of the blazing sun and pavement were enough.  I figured that I could add on miles if I needed.  Mile 5 was a 7:46.

The legs really began to struggle.  I tried to just focus on getting to the stone surface again.  I knew that that would give them relief.  Finally, I got there and they did feel better.

The legs weren’t great though.  I figured that I wouldn’t be running 10 miles.  I got to mile 6 and that was a 7:38.  I made the new goal of getting to 8 total miles.  That would still be a quality day.

With about 1.5 miles left, I saw a girl in the distance.  From far away, she looked cute.  I decided to pick it up and see if I could chase her down.  I didn’t take long.  She began walking not long after that.

This caused my pace to be 7:16 for the seventh mile.  I continued pushing fairly hard throughout the final mile.  Since I was taking a U-shaped route back, I thought maybe I could shortcut across the canal.  I crossed over a bridge near a “West Campus” sign.  I figured the other side of Butler’s campus must be over there.  Shortly after the bridge, I ran uphill and hit mile 8.  That was a 7:19.

The path did lead to the Butler campus.  It wasn’t much of a shortcut though and I still had a long walk back.  At least I was able to stop sweating before getting to the car.

This was a good, productive run.  I never expected to be able to run so far, so soon after 50 miles.  When I sped up in the last two miles, I actually felt good too.  I’m very happy with my recovery.  If my quads weren’t my weakness, I’d really be good.  I definitely need to strengthen them, as I move forward.

I’m not sure on the run for tomorrow yet.  I’m thinking that it will be shorter, around 5 miles.  We saw a new trail by the racetrack.  I might try running on that.  Tomorrow is busy, so it might be an evening run.  On Saturday, I hope to meet up with the Indy Runners group.

8 miles – 1:01:02 (7:38 pace)