23 May 2009 Running and Walking

At 5:50 I woke up and ate breakfast. At 6:30 am I decided to go ahead and run a certified 5K in a nearby town, Chillicothe, IL.
The event was called the Riverrun (results here)

Time: 25:40, or 8:16 minutes per mile.

I got there at 7:20, registered, and then warmed up. My legs were like lead; my calves were heavy. So, I did about 2 miles.

Then came the race; I decided to stay behind someone who had been finishing a few seconds behind me; I forgot that he had been doing speedwork.

This strategy got me to mile 1 in 7:35. I thought “hey, I didn’t know that I could sustain this for 5K”. About 400 meters later I found out that I couldn’t; I ended up walking. I took a few more jog and walk reps before I could return to easy running; that disastrous second mile took 8:43 and got me to mile 2 in 16:19. I was able to sustain a medium run for the last 1.1 miles (9:21, or about 8:31 for that mile) and get it over with; afterward I walked around trying to shake it off.

The cool down gave me 6 miles total.

I then drove to the Rock Island Trail and walked 14 miles (plus). It was warm though we were to get a brief rain shower when I was 12 miles into it.

This walk (easy effort) took 3:24; (14:35 pace) I was about 1 minute faster on the return leg. The trail is crushed limestone and that makes for somewhat slower than road walking.

The highlights of my walk

1. I saw a coyote; it was on the trail, scrambled off and then I saw it running though the brush along side of me.

2. With three miles to go, I heard the unmistakable mating call of the green frog. The recent heavy rains had made a temporary ditch and it was sitting beside the water! It jumped in very quickly, as did its buddy.

Later, I heard the cry of the American toad.

My right leg bothered me a bit (behind the knee) but given the fact that it was warm, humid and rain was on the way, that was entirely understandable.

One other thing I noticed: trail traffic is highest within 1-2 miles of the entrances (Alta, Dunlap, various McMansion parks) but tapers off very quickly. I like getting past those points where the “once in a while when the weather is pretty” types are long gone.

I did notice my former mechanic (the shop that he worked at closed due to owner retirement) on the trail; he was running very smoothly and efficiently.

In all, I collected 20 miles (5 run, 15 walk) for the day; I’ll shut it down for while, aside from a “fun” social 4 mile run on Memorial Day and perhaps something longer on the weekend of June 6-7.

Cavaliers 96, Magic 95; the series is tied.

Wow. There were two field goals in the last second. Orlando had been down by 23 points in the third quarter and rallied to trade the lead over the last few minutes of the 4′th quarter.

Then with the game tied at 93, Turkoglu drove and hit a runner to put the Magic up 95-93 with ONE second left on the clock.

The Cavaliers inbound, and James does a quick catch and shoot from well behind the three point line: swish.

Instead of being down 0-2, it is now 1-1.

(photos from yahoo nba)

All of the 4 semi-final games have been outstanding.

U. S. Naval Academy Graduation

The story can be found here.

(hat tip)

Goodness, was it really 28 years ago when I did that? Vice President George H. W. Bush was our speaker.