Something neat about the run...

In general this is a pretty restful couple of days. I rode 4 days, swam 3, and ran 4 this week but I'm not sure I really overdid it any single day.

I'm taking the week off of running next week because I have something special planned on the bike. More on that later. To prep for next week I did something I rarely do; cleaned my bike. My new Mavic Kserium wheels arrived so I put those on. It's time for a new chain and I planned to put a new cassette but when I opened it I discovered I had purchased a 12-27 instead of a 12-23. I just told the guy at Performance Bike I wanted an Ultegra cassette. He must have taken a look at me and made the value judgement that I needed a 27 to climb the hills around Phoenix. Or maybe they were just out of 12-23s because they didn't have any when I returned the 12-27. I cleaned the old gears and ordered a new set online. I also cleaned up Katie's bike so we'll be ready to take Ken and Paige out in the carrier next weekend.

Today I had a little epiphany on the run. Day started bad. I got up at 4:00 but I couldn't motivate myself to get out of the house so I just watched 2006 Ironman Arizona and Coeur d'Alene. After the kids went down for a nap I decided to get out there. Temp was 89 degrees and sunny. It's been a while since I ran when it was that hot.

Immediately I had problems. My phone's mp3 player fritzed on me so I listened to "No Myth" by Michael Penn 3 times while I got ready and headed out. I had planned on doing my (now) usual 5 miles but a little faster than usual because I knew I wouldn't be running next week.

I went out at a 7:30 pace and within 1/2 mile I had a huge cramp in the muscle right above my right shin just to the right of the bone and my right hip felt like I had dislocated it. I struggled through another half mile and decided to walk for a second and fix my mp3 player while I contemplated my future.

After I got the tunes going again I decided to just go along at a fast walk. That didn't hurt and I sped it up to a slow jog. Suddenly I felt great. I checked an I was cruising along at a 10 minute mile pace. Slow, yes, but almost effortless. I forgot my HR strap again but I'd estimate my pulse was around 120 -130. I was almost able to breathe through my nose exclusively. I was just cruising along and I noticed that if my pace went any faster than 9:30 my hip would start to throb. Funny thing was, I think I could have gone forever at that 9:30 - 10:30 pace. So I realized, that's my base pace. Just like on the bike, you have to get lots of miles in at a slow pace in order for the blood vessels to grow in the correct places to feed the muscles quickly and efficiently. I've just never really tried to go that slow before. So anyway, I kind of lost track of myself and ended running about 10 miles. That is by far the furthest I've ever run at one time.