weekend recap

It’s been a few days since I’ve written about my running, but I have been putting in some miles. Not as many as I would like, but that’s been the running theme the past couple of weeks. Since this was the 4th of July weekend we (the family) went up to Three Lakes, Wisconsin. This has been the family tradition for the past 6 years. If you haven’t been in Northern Wisconsin, well, it’s not what you would expect. Rolling hills, heavy tree lines and a lot of lakes. It’s a beautiful place and I love going up there every year.

We left work on Thursday, around 2:30 and got on the road around 3:00. It was around 7:00 when we finally got up there and Tanya’s mom had dinner ready for us - - - which included German Potato salad. After eating way too much I went out on a short run. The sun was setting and the rolling hills made for a quick out and back 4 mile trot. I covered the for miles in a 6:15 pace, but the potato salad was not sitting well.

I then went out on Friday for a 10 mile run through town. The hills into town are a little deceiving and my calves were burning. None-the-less, the weather was perfect, in the upper 70’s, and I was running at a 6:23 pace.

I decided to take Saturday off and put in another 10 mile run on Sunday. I decided I would kick it back a bit and on the first 5 miles I went out at a 6:43 pace and on the way back picked it up to a 6:32 pace. I felt pretty good and could have gone longer, but I didn’t want to push my luck with being away too long and called it quits. Later that evening Tanya, Simone and I went on a drive to a neighboring town and followed the same path that I ran earlier on in the day. I was surprised at how hilly and curvy the road actually was. It was almost a constant incline.

Today we packed up the car and headed home so I wasn’t able to get in any miles before I left. Then when we got home the joys of homeownership took over - - - mowing the lawn and all the puttering around that goes on when one is gone for 4 days. When all was said and done I finally was able to get out and get some miles in. I decided to stay close to home and just ran around my block (1.1 mile loop with some nice little hills). After 3.5 miles I looked up into the sky and saw the nasty thunderstorm rolling in. It wasn’t the black clouds, but the constant lightning that told me to call it quits. So, after 3.5 miles I packed it in.

All-in-all the weekend was finally productive. Now I hope I can carry that forward into the week.