Tapering into Football

ORN #1: 11.7 miles, 2:01:40, R6/W1, 10:24/mile
ORN #2: 0.25 miles, no time, all run, lots of chatter

The beautiful fall weather continues. My first long run of the taper was useful and thought provoking on Saturday (but that's not unusual). During the taper, I'm trying to follow the concept of shortening the mileage but keeping the intensity. With temps in the upper 50s, that was not hard to do. I used a 6/1 and kept the HR up...I was pleased with a sub 10:30pace. The legs were stiff-ish throughout, probably from 23 last Saturday. Interestingly, around mile 8, the legs were neither more nor less stiff than in the early miles, so I pushed the pace with no ill effect. After one day off last week, I go back to the usual schedule this week. I may well run a local 10K race next Saturday as a final "tune up" before Chicago on Oct 10.

My second run of the day was a treat and perhaps the first of many. We had our grandkids over all day. When I returned from my outing, I asked the three of them "Who wants to go for a run?" Young Nathan jumped up and so out we went. I said "Let's see if we can run all the way around the block without walking!" He was game. And off we went...a steady jog and we made it. What a treat! Hope we get to do that more.

On the beautiful fall afternoon, I then took both boys on an outing I often took my own sons on when they were little. With Purdue playing at home, we went down to see the fourth quarter. It's a great value with little kids...no traffic, park for free, walk in for free, find an empty seat (plenty of those available, sadly, for Purdue football this season) and enjoy the sun, the crowd and a box of popcorn, if not the game (yeah, Toledo beat the Boilers; a win for the MAC, Darrell!).

Drew, Joe, Nathan

A good day, all the way around. I'm blessed and thankful.

Persevere.


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