Long Run Repeated

At some point over Laura’s weekend visit, we danced ourselves silly and uncomfortably sore.

High heels, although worn only one night out of the two, were a poor choice.

Especially since I ended up breaking the right heel off of said high heels. And no, we won’t get into the how or why behind it. Just know it happened and move on with your day. K, thanks.

Anyway. The shins have felt better, but they’ve improved significantly since the weekend. No reason to not be running.

And because I’ll be on my way out of town and off to celebrate a wedding and labor day, there wasn’t much choice but to pull yet another mid-week run of 10(ish) miles. Because it’s much harder than you think it is to convince friends you’re staying with to go on a 10-mile run with you super early on a Saturday morning.

I don’t get it, either.

But it is what it is and I chugged along the lakefront much like I did the week before. Not my ideal circumstances, but not a horrible experience, either. It seems to be my best, and fastest, few miles are between 7 and 9. A promising sign, since that used to be about the time I’d hit the wall.

The only incident? When I slow-motion ran into a couple on the sidewalk.

Generally, there’s plenty of room for passing.
Generally, people aren’t swaying back and forth, creating a human wall.
Generally, when I sweetly say “I’m sorry, excuse me” in advance, they hear me.
Generally, people don’t turn in complete surprise and jump to the same side as I do when I realize they were oblivious to absolutely everything around them.

I was practically at a stop even before I reached them because I knew I wasn’t getting by. It was like a dance to get out of each other’s way.

And because we seemed to be on the same wavelength with our movements, I just sorta… fell into her. Slow motion.

Strange. Awkward. Embarrassing.

So there was that.

Because I can’t get through even one day without at least one awkward encounter.

After that, I just picked up my dignity, brushed it off, and ran the rest of my 10.1 miles in peace.

Guess it coulda been worse.

And in ZOOMA news…

There’s a facebook contest going on! We’re looking for your ugliest race photos!

We’ve all got them. I don’t think I actually have a good one, now that I think about it.

Anyway, if you post your best one on the ZOOMA facebook page, you’ve got a chance to win an awesome prize pack when they randomly select a winner!

Or, you can just go and look at the ugly pics for entertainment purposes. There’s that, too… 

Laters!

The Lakefront Experience

Yesterday’s weather was so gorgeous. It’s as if the stars aligned. Perfection. Seriously.

Chicago weather is volatile. So I expect that to not happen again for at least another 3 or 4… months?

Anyway, with temps in the mid-80′s, blue skies, and low humidity levels, I just HAD to take advantage of it in every way possible. Starting with a lakefront run.

The lake is a bit of a hike from my place. But I’ve been dying to try it out and a friend lives pretty close to it, so we decided to meet up and give it a go. He’s been looking for a running partner and I said why not? When in training, I prefer solo running. It’s easier. But when I’m just running to run? I don’t care how fast or far. Let’s just go…

Not knowing how long he’d want to run, I chose to walk the 2 miles to our meeting spot instead of run it. I realized the error of my ways after the first mile- it’s too hot to consider a 2-mile walk as “nothing”.

By our meeting time, I was a little heated, but at least I didn’t have to worry about warming up. We started immediately on a decent pace that kept us a little winded, but still able to hold a conversation the entire time.

We had to stop to walk a few times. But that was his fault. Two coke and whiskeys does not a dinner make. And gatorade is not a sufficient breakfast. Silly boys.

Yet I was still impressed we pulled a solid 3.7-mile run.

Maybe I need whiskey in my diet?

Anyway, after we parted, I ran another .7 miles for good measure and ended up with 4.4 miles ran for the day. Apparently that’s the magic number of the week.

However, I’m pretty sure after the rest of the day, there was more walking done than running.

Mon and I decided to trek back towards the lakefront and hit up North Avenue Beach to people watch get a little sunshine.What can I say? I’m addicted to the lakefront.

I’m also addicted to street fests these days. When I heard about Roscoe Village’s Burgerfest, I said SIGN ME UP.Nothing says class like popping a squat on the sidewalk to enjoy my Miller Lite and Guac Burger.Tasty.Clearly we were just way too excited to get some food and drink in our systems.

A solid run. A little tan. A lot of good food. All done with good friends.

Now THAT is a perfect day.