March 16: Weekend Rehash

After rudely telling my readers on Friday night that I had better things to do than "talk to them" on a Friday night, I went ahead and had a great weekend! The weather was great, which allowed Jennie and I to stroll the streets of Paris on Saturday afternoon where we eventually found ourselves relaxing in the Jardin de Touleries infront of the Louvre (JD - very close to where we hung out the one day) like so,


(the corner of the Louvre is in the background)

and like so..


(Note that I am wearing my running socks in anticipation of my run that would soon follow...I hate getting two pairs of socks dirty if I do not have too, so if I know I am going to run, then I just wear my running socks out and about prior to the run). Speaking of my run, I ran 8 miles as follows:

7:09, 7:18, 7:18, 7:07, 7:07, 7:02, 6:58, 6:45, 6:40 min/mile

On Sunday I got up, worked on our bikes all morning (they are now ready to go...I cannot wait!), went for a picnic in the park, then headed out for a 15 miler. As it turns out I have a marathon on my schedule in 3 weeks, so I figured I better "get serious" about this whole thing! The run went as follows:

7:18, 7:04, 7:08, 7:10, 7:11, 7:05, 7:05, 7:08, 7:13, 7:05, 6:49, 6:55, 6:30, 6:41, 7:11 min/mile

Now, I was happily running along, trying to maintain 7:15 (ish) pace until mile 11. I must have been dragging my feet and building some serious static electricity during the previous mile because I attracted what Jennie calls a "clinger". This is the person on the trail that you easily pass as you are just running and doing your own thing, but in doing so you just ruined this poor guy's run. In a desperate attempt to salvage his day he does everything he can to not only catch back up to you, but to pass you (but just by a few feet before settling back into your exact pace) just to prove that he could take you whenever he chooses to.

Well, about 2 minutes after I passed some random guy I start to hearing loud, labored breathing OVER my Ipod (and seeing that I practically deaf, this means that this guy is working very hard to maintain his dignity over there!) Out of the corner of my eye I see this guy sprinting like ESPN is broadcasting this moment live around the globe - all the eyes of the world were upon the most heroic runner ever about to take down some unsuspecting prey who had the audacity to pass him just several moments earlier.

Naturally the following thoughts crossed my mind:

"What the Hell?"
"You have got to be kidding me."
"Bye."

And that cumulated in a slightly faster mile 11. Truth was, after 200m I did not see him again, but that was all I needed to break up the monotony of the run. After that, I just felt "good" and let my legs finish anyway they decided they wanted to.

I took today off, tinkered on the bikes somemore, and finished watching season 1 of 24. I figure I should be caught up to the current season in about a week!

A+