Weekend Recap

A rare busy weekend for us here! Saturday morning I did 9 miles at an easy pace. Relaxing run, not much to add to it. Here is a photo of the start of the path:

After getting home and getting the family started, I took my tot to the park. She insisted on bring out our pride flag and her turtle:

I then went to meet up with some fellow bloggers as they were up in my neck of the woods at Hollywood Beach doing a paddle boarding lesson.

You got Anne @ Anne Really Blogs, Erin @ Loop Looks,+Maggie Wolff, Xaarlin at Pain is nothing, and +Emily Seto.

Couple extra photos:

 

I spend the time doing the beach thing with my wife and tot.

Afterwards we meet up again at Moody's!

I may or may not have said that's what she said as the photo was taken and blinked. woops!

And director's commentary: There are some Whovians in this photo, can you guess who?

In the evening we had a BBQ with some other parents in the hood out at Hollywood beach area again:

Fast forward to this morning: My normal  Sunday half mara distance. I wanted to take it easy to save my legs for next Sunday's Rock and Roll Half. I started around 7:40am, and the Sun was already beating my energy down, so there was no going hard anyways. One aggravating thing from the run, right at the start of the path, this guy who I judged to be going a bit faster than me, was about 30 feet behind me and coming around the loop at Ardmore. I assumed he was just going to pass me and I could just relax. BUT NOPE.

This guy stayed like 5 feet behind me for the next SIX MILES. I tried to slow down a little, one for the heat, and two to hope he'd pass me. NOPE! WTF Dude. I was a rangry runner and dripping sweat like no tomorrow.  Every time I turned to check for bikes, there he was, ugh.  He went a different way at North Avenue area, and I realized... he wanted to run in my draft... The wind was out of the south and was enough to suck energy out of you. Here is my thoughts on him...

EDIT: I FORGOT! I saw Mayor Rahm running this morning! Did anyone else?

My end time was ~ 1:35. Not bad considering the heat and my plan for the day. I also tried out a honey stinger gel thing, and I liked it a lot better than a Gu. I have a few more things I'll try this week before settling. But I do miss the gatorade on my run.

I poured at least two bottles of water on my, maybe three total by the end of my run. I was soaked head to toe with sweat and water. My sneakers sounded like wet sponges.  Muscle wise, I feel fine, but the heat and sweating are taking a little longer to recover from.

Might go out to George's Ice Cream later in Andersonville, and have laundry to do. Doing Pint night tomorrow with some bloggers! First time I'll run with more than two people on purpose in ages.

How was your weekend?

Sun(day) fun on the Sun

Short post today.

I learned yesterday afternoon that I saw the Ruminator @ Running Ruminations during my morning run.

This morning I woke up at 5 to give myself  a couple hours to clear my stomach and head out before it got too hot for my long run. Usually I take about 2 hours to get this process down. Today it took me three hours. It was worth the wait as my insides were super empty which is the best feeling to start running on (thank you coffee). I started my run around 8am. The first few miles were quick, but once the heat started to set in, my pace gave out slowly. I'd say about every three miles I lost a few seconds. The worst section was between Fullerton and Michigan Avenue where there is no shade at all, I felt like a roasting bean.

I think I saw Chris @ My Type of Run on my run back, I'm waiting on confirmation on this (if you are reading this, were you wearing a green shirt, maybe shamrock shuffle?).

I also saw a coworker of mine who is training for the Chicago Marathon, but he was just taking a walk today as he is coming off an illness.

And I saw one of my sunrise weekday running peeps (she is a waver convert, but I can't pin down her age, but she always has on really long socks, so maybe I'll call her Miss Kneehigh?) on the last mile of my run and we exchanged a wave and nod.

The run itself was nice. I didn't put my all into it, but I was happy that I maintained on okay time. It was withing the pace that I should aim for according to Hanson (~30 seconds slower- thanks to Lindsay @ Running the Windy City for the book help here).

Random side notes: Tan lines getting strong. Better hit the beach to even out!

The Full Moon Fire Jam is Tuesday night near Foster Beach - anyone going?

Anyone hitting the beach today? Which one?

You do a race/run today?

I'll try to do the photo challenge soon. Time to freshen up

A little bird told me to run...away..now

After I published my last post yesterday, my wife, child, and myself went to the beach to enjoy the nice weather. For once this season the temperature held by the lake. We originally thought we would just do some playing in the sand and maybe wet our feet. Our daughter hasn't been the most comfortable yet with the lake.

Well that changed and of course no bathing suits were on. We spent a lot of time in the water and my little girl plopped herself in the water and had a blast. Here are some photos:

Walking to the water

 

She just finished a tough mudder

Cool line of clouds

We would walk out for 10 seconds and run back in

aaaand we go back in

The evening was a bit more testy as we skipped our daughter's nap and her dinner was late so hellooo cranky. She took a quick snooze at a stop at Dominicks:

Cousin It taking a nap later at Dominicks

Move the time to this morning, 4:40 am, shortest run of the week and slowest pace. Still trying to work on my calf. It flared a bit in the evening, but I expected that after 13 miles on a tender leg.

70 degrees at 5am, makes dressing fast.  Upon jogging to the lake I see a group of 10 twenty something year olds leaving the beach rather intoxicated. I'm sure they had a special swim. I also saw thumbs up guy, I am glad he got the memo to get back on the practice squad.

I stopped for a quick photo at Hollywood beach of the sunrise before it got too bright..

The birds were very territorial this morning, chasing squirrels away like fighter plans, and some vicious cardinals scaring away some small birds. I knew it was on a matter of time before I was targeted. Run Declan was the word in the trees.

The gnat families were also out this morning, thankfully I didn't end up wearing them.

Tomorrow is interval day, trying to decide if I should do slower intervals until my leg is better, or just do a basic 10 miles and let my leg rest. Game time decision.

Excited for French toast for dinner and low 80s today.

You get a Father's day run in?

Do you love brinner?

Feliz Pre Friday Eve

Greetings runners and weekend warriors! Today is Pre Friday Eve, can you feel Saturday calling yet?

I must first share a photo from yesterday evening when I took my daughter to the beach, although it was a little cooler than I expected.

She was actually protesting a photo here

Onto today, 4:40am is no longer scary. Wake up, check temp, 71, score! Recovery run today, do 7 miles and keep between 8 to 9 minute miles.

Nice thing about early running, is you can shed the shirt and not feel too self conscious, this saves on laundry, tan lines, and most importantly, no nipple chafing protection needed.

The first half of my run I saw a total of 5 runners, little odd. I saw my fellow dad friend biking to work, he was early and hearing my name that early caught me off guard.

In bigger news, I got my first high five today. A group of 4 20ish Asian/Oriental guys were biking the opposite direction and were a bit rowdy. One guy stuck out the hand and it was on. We have high five contact! He was cheering so hard afterwards you could dump Gatorade on him and it would be appropriate.

I stopped to get a couple photos today, about 8 minutes apart:

~5:25am

Annnnd Sunrise

Won't be long before I need sunscreen for my longer runs.

In the last two miles I ran into some swarms of those tiny black bugs (gnats? I think) and had to wave them out of my face. I started singing in my head Tupac Back by Meek Mill, but replaced it with- Bugs are Back.

Get home, look down and initially think, I don't remember these freckles... Oh right bugs. Get to the bathroom mirror, they committed mass suicide on my chest and neck (A similar example from reddit/r/running here). Gross. I definitely got the loofah out for this shower.

Small tip for today that I noticed in more runners today: If you hear your footsteps hitting the ground hard or shuffling, you need to fix up your form. Loud? You are running too hard and you will get hurt faster. Shuffling? Try to pick your feet up, I have to believe that extra resistance on the ground isn't great for you.

Have you faced these genocidal bugs yet this year? I think it should be a photo challenge +Maggie MagMileRunner

Do you want to get high fived while running? Have you?