Solid Gold

Grand Old Day in my experience is the warm-up for the festival season. I like to call Grand Old Day, the opening day and the state fair is the playoffs. Painfully cold temps kept Grand Avenue in the PG-13 realm on Sunday. Last year it seemed pretty skanked out. This year was tolerable. The good part of the day is that I got to experience one of the local groups that I have been listening to the past few months...Solid Gold. They played about a 40 minute set on the Dixie's Stage. Most of it was good, some duds, but that's what live shows are all about. The other good part of Grand Old Day, is being able to walk a half-mile away from my place and consume a foot-long corn dog, a bag of mini-donuts, and a coffee. Pretty darn good!

As far as running goes...On Friday I met Jeff for a 6am run. Ran 11 miles, pretty uneventful.

On Saturday I woke up early enough to get a run in, but did some computer work and sent out emails instead, so I ran after work. Ran a relaxed 10 miles with alternating on/offs from Lexington Ave to Dale Street on Summit Ave.

On Sunday I ran a tempo run as part of the Grand Old Day 8k. Ran well through 4 miles, 21:23, but told myself not race today...and I didn't, but there were 2 guys near me at 4 miles, and I let off the pace a bit to keep from racing. That's alright though...I will take the run through 4 miles, and I felt really strong on the uphills. Pulling away from the other 2 guys easily going up both bigger hills. I don't know if this is a race that I would want to give an all out effort. Running on Grand Ave does not have the same feel as running on Summit.

Today I ran my Monday morning 12 mile route. Pushed the final 2 downhills. Starting to feel more natural running fast downhills. I will probably make one more trip out to Afton Alps before Grandma's weekend, plus a run in the park this Thursday. All in all, a pretty solid week of training, lets see if I can string together another two weeks like this past one.

Song of the Day: Didn't I - Darondo