Who needs speed? (or sun?)

Can you tell it's mid June in Seattle?

See the clouds?  See the gloom?  At least it's
not raining...

This weekend is Fremont's annual Summer Solstice Parade and Fremont Fair.  I love this occasion.  The parade is very risque and tons of fun.  The fair is entertaining too.  And the forecast for this weekend?

At least it'll be in the 70's.  That's a bonus.

Last year, my brother and his fiance came out from NY to visit during this time.  We went to the Solstice Parade together, which they loved, despite the fact that it looked like this:

Rain jackets, grey skies, giant geoduck replica.  Yep, looks like
Summer Solstice in Seattle.

My "little" brother.  If we look uncomfortable, it's because
we are.

Anyways, despite the gloominess outside, I had a really great run today.  I've been having a lot more just me and Lucy runs lately, and to be honest, I've been getting a little frustrated with them.  I get bored running by myself now.  And by myself, I mean without another human capable of conversation.  I think too much about what I'm doing.  And I've been really focused on pace lately.  It seems like mentally all I want to do is go faster and still feel better, but this hasn't been happening.  I've been pushing my solo runs to around an 8:50-9:00 average.  I start out feeling great, but then of course am exhausted by the end of the run, just counting the minutes until I'll be home.  And then there's Lucy.  Lucy doesn't like to run fast.  She drags behind and I end up getting really frustrated as she "ruins" my pace.  But this is so silly.  Why do I need to go that fast right now?  I just ran a marathon.  I may feel normal again, but that doesn't mean that I didn't severely beat up my body a week and a half ago.  Just because my muscles feel fine now doesn't mean that my body is fully recovered.

I've now been on 5 runs since the marathon.  I did the Roadrunner Adventure Run the Thursday after the marathon, which was fun, but my body was still tired.  Last Saturday, I went to TNT practice, which was a hilly 4 miles that tired me out more than I wanted it to.  Another 4 miler on Sunday felt OK, but not great.  Then on Tuesday, I came down with a cold.  So instead of waiting until the 6:30 team practice, I went out and ran earlier with Lucy by myself.  Just a flat 3 miler around Greenlake, but with the sore throat and runny nose, I wasn't feeling that run either.

I intended to have my last run of the year with my teacher group yesterday, but by the time the school day was over, my throat felt like sandpaper, I couldn't breathe through my nose, and I felt a pounding headache coming on so quickly that I "borrowed" a Tempadot from the nurse's office to make sure I didn't have a fever (I didn't).  So instead of running, I took advantage of the fact that Lucy had been at day care all day (and therefore didn't need exercise) and went home and did nothing.

This rest paid off, because I felt a little better this morning and then even better by the afternoon.  And now, I just have an annoying runny nose that keeps trying to drain down the back of my throat (too much information?  Oops, sorry).  Anyways, the point is, when I got home from work today, I was excited to go for a nice, easy 5 mile run.  I didn't want to push myself though.  I wanted this run to feel good, the whole way through.  Which meant taking it slow at the beginning.  But when I have a nice fancy watch on my wrist telling me my pace, I have trouble trying not to beat the numbers.  So instead of looking at my watch the whole time (I couldn't bring myself to leave it at home though...), I decided to use this as my pacer instead:

So much happier when she gets to decide
how fast we go.

As long as Lucy was trotting happily near my side, we kept that pace.  If I sped up and suddenly felt a tightening of the leash behind me, I slowed down.  Pretty simple.  And in the end, everyone was happier.  Here's how Lucy paced me:

So, I figured out that the weird percentages tell me how much faster or
slower I went than the previous mile.  I'm guessing with the intention
of helping me focus on making every mile green and therefore faster
than the previous one--as a proper run should be.  Fail here, but oh well.

I was surprised we still kept it under 9:30.  I assumed Lucy would keep me a little closer to 10:00, but she seems to have sped up recently with me lately.  Lucy was even so full of pep and energy at mile 4 that she was inspired to play a little game of leash tug of war.

Look at the focus in those eyes. Ready to chomp on.

And then the tug.  There's lots of growling and jumping
involved.  She likes to try to catch hold as close to my hand
as possible.

The last time Lucy had enough spunk in the middle of a run to play leash tug of war, she caused me to eat shit in the middle of the gravelly outer loop of Greenlake.  So I made sure she stayed to my side this time.  But I also took out my phone and took pictures.  Those 2 things may have cancelled each other out in improving the safety of this situation.  Nonetheless, no face plant this time.  No skinned knees.

During mile 5, you'll notice that the pace slowed a ton.  This was not because we were tired.  It was not because we didn't feel great.  It was because of this:

Not the "30 minute load and unload only" sign,
the ginormous hill behind it (ha, I did not think
ginormous was a real word, but spell checker
isn't yelling at me for it).

I tried to take a picture of this hill that exemplified the grade and length of the hill, but found it impossible.  Let's just say it's big.  And about 5 blocks long.  And steep, really steep.  And Lucy paced me well enough through the run that I confidently ran this hill, albeit slowly, all the way to the top.  And I didn't fell like I was going to die.  And my legs didn't feel like they were going to fall off.  And I start a lot of sentences with the word "and"...even though I know perfectly well that this is grammatically incorrect.  Don't judge me (no "and" in that one).

So today, after having a bit of a rough week, I'm feeling great.  My legs feel happy.  My confidence is cushioned.  I ran my longest run since the marathon, and finally felt great.  And I can attribute all of it to my faithful (and now very tired) running buddy.

She is also faithfully keeping my toes warm.

Thanks Lucy.  Again.