Wŭ de May!

Sunday, the long run, Cinco de Mayo (Wŭ = five in Chinese), good sleep was had, lets do this day.

Wake up at 8am (woah!) and think, I'm going to break my half marathon run time today, its my goal to average a 90 minute speed this year, but I keep falling a couple minutes short.

Walk to the living room, greet my lovely ladies.  My wife is feeling a bit off, so I offer to postpone my run until our daughter takes her nap around noon, and I'll pick up the morning so she can rest.  Not really sure how I should eat to run that late,  just have to wing it.

Wife suggests I take our daughter out the the park, so we venture out (one block) to the park.  We spend a good hour or so chasing birds, digging in the grass, and once in awhile actually using the park equipment.  She is very adept with a stick I'll have you know.

My daughter trying to catch the pigeons

Come back around 11:00, and try to mimic my running routine I normally have. Mostly to get my stomach in order so it won't act up in the run (you know what I'm talking about). Drink a few cups off coffee, change, and mentally clear up. I'm going to try to start using the products that will be available at the Chicago Marathon to make sure I don't introduce anything new to my stomach on race day.  Today, I tried out a step 1 Gatorade pouch about 20 or so minutes before I went out the door.  It tasted like  melted Otter Pops. I felt really jittery after it, not sure this is something I want in my regimen. I checked the weather, and saw a wind out of the North, kept telling myself to prepare for it... never can.

I set my Endomondo (I thought) to give me a pace time for ever half mile, to try to focus on my goal time.  After starting, it appears it went off every .05 miles. Rather than stop and fiddle, I just turned it off. Stop watch it is! I knew enough distance points to base my time off of as I go.

3 miles, 20 minutes... too fast... slow down Declan. Stomach shows up, feels funky for a couple miles. Gatorade pouch? Too much breakfast? who knows.

One minor story here, I have a beef with rollerbladers that don't pick a speed.  I initially passed two ladies on rollerblades, a little odd, since I know they can get speed pretty easy. A couple minutes later, they pass me. Okay better. A few minutes later, I pass them.  You can see where this is going.

After a couple miles, we are about at the same speed on several occasions, and I'm stuck on the dirt several times.  Finally they zoom off after hitting a small decline on the path. Good bye! Thank you.. But I see them one more time getting water... Please don't go my way.

7 Miles, 47 minutes... slow down Declan... because it is time to turn around.

And we have wind.  Experience tells me the wind is strongest from Michigan avenue to about Belmont.  I focus on my form and just hope to get through it. The wind off the lake is not kind if you are trying to get to a new speed.

I reach Belmont, no change... *****  Every mile got harder, I knew I wasn't going to get a great time now.  I finish my run with my slowest time in about a month and a half. Dang.. I gotta learn how to take that wind better and save more energy.  Maybe I'll bring Gatorade a few times during as well.

Time for the walk home, the breeze feels minimal. bleh.

Get home and we decide to go to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba ( we couldn't agree on a mexican place, Fiesta Mexican or La Ciudad) . So we head off and have a wonderful dinner then custard at our favorite neighborhood shop, Lickity Split!

Now to close, here is a photo of our daughter giving us a look on the train down to dinner.

Dad, whatcha looking at?