Tuesday afternoon
3.25 mi / 5.2 km
Slept late so I didn't get in my early morning run. It was my birthday so I wanted to do something semi-epic, like a 10-miler in the dark, but it didn't happen. Instead, I headed down to the jhs track in the afternoon with the idea of doing a five-mile tempo run. I wanted to see if I could maintain an 8:30 mm pace for that distance, and so set my pace alert. It was the first time I've used the pace alert function on my Garmin 205 since last year I think. Each time the alert went off, I imagined a younger self alternatively giving me a gentle, sympathetic pat on the back -- "c'mon pops, you can do it" -- or a harsh, jeering shove -- "Hurry up old man, you're embarassing me!"
I was actually doing OK, although the effort level was just on the other side of comfortable, when, at about the two-mile mark, I started to get some gas coming up ... belch ... burp ... belch ...
I had eaten my raw fruits and vegetables lunch less than two hours earlier and that, along with the humid mid-80s temps, began to take their toll. So after two and a half miles I stopped to walk 100 yards, and then started up again at about a 9mm pace. After one lap I still felt a bit nauseous, so I walked a whole lap, and then did another half-mile at an even slower pace, something like 9:30 mm, before calling it a day. Oh well. Not the best birthday run, but I was happy I could sustain a 8:30 pace for two and a half miles in hot conditions. That's probably some kind of record for my sorry middle-aged a$$. It also felt good to run on the track's sandy gravel again. With the recent early morning running, I don't think I had enjoyed the lovely mild abrading afforded by the track's surface for at least a month. My soles felt wonderfully tingly later on as I devoured my rib-eye steak and finished off a whole bottle of Merlot.