Shazam.
Geof and I had a nice little weekend :) Saturday morning, we woke up earrrly and Jim picked us up to drive out to Libertyville to test out one of our fellow CHUGs, Ed Kelly's, favorite trails, the Des Plaines River Trail. It was a good 45-50 minute drive up, but the company made the drive fly by. The morning decided to start out cold, low 20s, and windy, much to our dismay. The weather forecast called for warming temps and sun. We got neither of those things. I felt a little off when I woke up and kind of dragged ass around the apartment. Just one of those days.
We met Ed and Brian (both of which will be running RR100 with us!) at the Independence Grove lot, shivering as we all stepped out of our heated vehicles. Holy eff, it was a chill fest! We ran down a stretch of pavement and then jumped onto the trail, which is normally crushed limestone, but on this day it was covered in a layer of heavily churned snow atop a thick layer of ice. The footing was terrible and I was so not in the mood to twist my ankles. So after a 1/2 hour, I decided I was going to turn around and just run loops around the Grove while the guys ran the trail.
I grabbed Jim's car key from Geof and let them know what direction I'd be running the 2.7 mile loops so we could meet up again once they finished. Super duper! I eventually made it back to the paved loop we started from and looking to my right I saw the car that held all things warm and delightful, but instead chose to go left and run a loop before grabbing a gel and warming up. Oh my it was windy out in the open, but the area was very nice. I bet it's a real gem in the spring and summer...the Grove is bursting at the seams with ponds and rolling hills, trees and lots of other stuff to distract you. I ran the first loop, hopped in Jim's car to warm up and down a gel, contemplated a nap, then got back out before I could be lured any further into laziness. I knew I could squeeze in another loop before the guys reappeared from the woods. Just as I finished up my second loop, the guys were finishing up and decided to join me on a couple more loops around the Grove. Good times! I ended up with just over 13 miles, and after our run we headed into town and had an awesome chowdown breakfast at Townee Square Restaurant.
After a lovely visit with Geof's dad, Larry, and Andrea, on Sunday afternoon Geof and I headed out for our f'real long run, and hopped on the lakefront path. The weather was downright sinfully gorgeous. The sun was out, the sky was clear, the temps were in the upper 20s, perhaps even into the 30s and just a touch of wind here and there. We ran south until we hit 10 miles, turned around and headed home. It was tough on my joints doing that on the pavement, and now my right knee is giving me the silent treatment, but it was a very good run. Just getting through the miles and working out the kinks. We were both pretty spent before too long, but it still flew by. We got 'er done in 3h:30m, under our anticipated 4 hour finish. Bam!
Back-to-back long runs remind the legs who's boss.
We've got one more long run weekend coming up and then a nice two-week taper for Rocky Raccoon 100. Oh boy, it's coming up fast! Just found out today that Tony will be joining us down in Texas for the 100M as well...a veritable CHUGfest!
Now it's time to gather up my brain cells and my patience as tomorrow starts a new semester...yikes!!
Crash, out.
4 comments:
Hi Paige,
Holy crap a 100M!!! I am just trying to live through my first half marathon:) It sounds like your back to backs went well!
I am hoping to see Slomo's race report soon....can't wait to hear how it went!
Have a good one Paige!
I LOVE the DPRT! That's the one I do most often when I'm out doing my freelance work in the NW burbs. I've done all the miles on the lower half of the trail. Some day I'll do the whole 27 miles north to the Wisconsin border and then run back again. It's such a flat, gentle, well-groomed trail that I'm not completely sure it counts as "trail running". WooHoo! Yay, DPRT!
Sounds like a great weekend. Good luck with the 100!
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