March of the Ducks

Had a great run Saturday. I started out with Caroline and Jana. My last two miles, which were with Jana, were done at about an 8:40 pace. It was fun running with her. I hope she keeps coming out to run. We got back to 9th & Riverside just as the RunnersWorld group was heading out. I paired up with Joe and did another 14 miles at a moderate pace, with the last two miles fast. Total miles for the morning = 21. I felt good the whole way.

I ran 5.5 miles Monday before I left for Little Rock.

I got out of my meeting Tuesday a little early. I got to see the March of the Ducks in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel. At 5 o'clock, the Duckmaster came out and told us the story of the ducks. He rolled out the red carpet, and the ducks climbed out of the fountain, and marched down the red carpet into the elevator.

While I was waiting for the ducks, I got to thinking about Charlotte, one of my best running partners until she broke her neck in December. So, I called her on my cell phone. She was telling me she was sort of depressed, and right at that time my cell phone battery died. What a horrible friend I must have seemed. Oh well, I was able to call her back an hour or so later.

I went back to my hotel and swam 20 minutes in the pool. It was pretty awful. It was an indoor/outdoor pool, so I would do a few breaststrokes and duck to miss the divider, then I would do a few strokes of freestyle till I got to the end. Turn and repeat. It wouldn't have been so bad except the water was way too hot. I have been in hot tubs that have been cold in comparison.

So then I went to eat at PF Changs. A storm came through while I was eating. When I returned to the hotel, a tree had blown over and fallen right onto the space where my truck had been.

After the meal settled, I ran 8 miles on a treadmill. Oh, I hate that. To keep it interesting I kept increasing the pace every half mile. I ended up at about a 6:50 pace and a heart rate of 170, then a one mile cool down.

Wednesday was a rest day.

Today I did a hill workout on the treadmill. After a warmup, I set it on 6.5 mph (9:13 per mile) and incline of 1% for a minute, then adjusted the incline every minute: 2-1-3-1-4-1-5-1-6-1-7-1-8-1-9-1-10-0. Then I slowed down to 6 mph (10:00 per mile) and kept adjusting the incline: 11-0-12-0-13-0-14-0-0-0-15-0. At that point my stomach was pretty upset and I felt kind of lightheaded. My bloomin' onion and sirloin steak from Outback wanted to come back up. I almost quit, but I kept at 6 mph and no incline for a few minutes and began to feel better. Then I cranked up the speed to my BQ pace, 7.3 mph (8:13 per mile). First a couple of minutes at no incline, then changed the incline every minute: 1-0-2-0-3-0-4-0-5-5-0. Then I slowly decreased the speed each minute until the last minute I was at 5 mph. Total time = 60 minutes. Total miles = 6.5. Max heart rate = 170 (at 15% incline). It really was kind of a fun workout. Exhausting, though.