Mojo returned - safe and sound
Hey guys! I hope you all had an awesome Easter weekend. We did, and it sucks that it's nearly over.
Friday night we headed to a fairly close little Italian joint - Uncle Gio's Italian Restaurant on Nolensville Rd. We had been there once before and liked the food but hated the service. This time was totally the same - except my food was just mediocre and the bread hurt my teeth. This place is always packed with 5 million poorly behaved kids and we always end up with a terrible waiter. A family of four that came in after us was already leaving with doggie bags before we got our food. Seriously. We waited over 20 minutes just for the salad portion of our meal. Anyway, after that we ran some errands and came home and relaxed on the deck for a while. It was a beautiful night, we had had a high temp of 88 degrees Friday - breaking all sorts of records.
It's great that it's warm and all - but it's seriously tough to go straight from 40-50 degree runs into 70-80 degree runs! There's a big gap in there!!! Sat am we set the alarm and headed out for Percy Warner park to put the last nail in the coffin of our hill training. I didn't have a good run there last Saturday and I was determined not to repeat history. The sun was shining and it was bright!! When we started running it was 73 degrees with 65% humidity. There were tons of people out running and cycling and TNT as well as some other charity group were out finishing their run. For some reason they don't run through the park, just the straight flat roads outside the park. I know the park course is tough, but come on! Life's not easy. We started out on the 11.2 trail and it already felt much easier (but hotter) than last week! We dodged a lot of walkers and made our way. It felt nice, we chatted and enjoyed the pretty park. Around mile 4.7 we added on an extra mile out and back so we'd end up with 14 miles when we were done. The bad part about the add on was that it was NOT in the shade, and by then the temps had climbed up to 80. My ideal running temp is 60-65, Brent's is closer to 50-60. As a result I can deal with the heat a little better than him and I could tell the heat was taking a lot out of both of us. We were finally back in the shade around mile 6 and we ate some Sports Beans. I think they taste a lot better than Clif Bloks, but you do have to eat quite a few of them. They're easy to down since they don't have a Gu taste to them, but I get sick of eating when I'm trying to focus on running. Beans down it was time to start climbing some hills. Based on some discussions on the local running boards the overall grade of the course is 2%, including the sharp downhills. The two toughest parts of the course have a grade of 10-15%! Ugh! Brent was starting to fall behind a bit on the hills, so I'd make it to the top and then wait on him and cheer him on. When we finally made it to the top of the toughest one (usually mile 9 but for us mile 11) I knew we had it. The rest is mostly downhill and I was feeling great. With a mile to go I went ahead and kicked it in, I knew Brent would be fine. I finished 14 miles in 2:11, which is OK. It was already 82 degrees when we finished running! They're actually planning a marathon in this park this fall, which will be so awesome! It's going to be limited to 100 people so when registration opens I am IN! I think it would be a great and super-challenging marathon course. Course elevation is here.
Even though we were super stinky we stopped by Fleet Feet for some goodies on our way home. We both got some new running clothes from the clearance rack and stocked up on more Sports Beans and Clif Bloks. We are ready for some long races!! Last night we headed out for dinner at our fave Indian restaurant only to see it's now going to be stupid Sprint store!! WTF?? We stared in disbelief for a few minutes before we walked back to the car. We ended up trying a different Indian restaurant, Taste of India, over on Church Street. Their food was AWESOME, so it's now our new fave. Sitar is our second fave, then Shalimar.
I hope everyone had a great weekend! We took some pics but we haven't uploaded them yet so I'll post them tomorrow!
Rae
Exercise-
Friday - 1 mile am walk with Pips
Sat - 14 mile run with Brent
Sun - 4 mile run, 2.1 mile walk with Brent and Pips at the park
posted by Rae @ 6:44 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
I saw a big writeup on Boston, which apparently is tomorrow. And this year, it's part of a series! That should be interesting to read up on. I like points systems (hence my little baseball fantasy leagues (thanks for joining)). Hope it's not terribly hot there, too. It's gettin a bit warm here. Had the AC on for the first time this year.
Dang bees are out in full force, too, kamikaziing against the side of my apt. bldg.
Well, y'all have yourselves a nice night, y'hear?
Heh, an Indian restaurant on Church Street? I don't know where you live and I know it's not Toronto, but it might as well be.
Indian food is the devil. If the resultant smell doesn't do you in, the heart attacks will (South Asians have heart disease like Westerners have cancers). Look out!
What's a sprint store? We dont' have those up here in Canada..well not yet :)
That is some elevation, girl. Hills are evil but awfully fun :)
Love it. You guys cook (or don't cook) as little as me...hehehe...
Glad you got your MOJO back Rae!!
don't listen to adeel. Indian food is god's gift to earth. but yeah. It might give you a heart attack.
great job on the run!
Great that you have your Mojo back. Indian food, yikes, too spicy for me. I have an Indian friend here in Germany that gave me some homemade relish - one taste and my mouth burned - I used the rest to strip furniture with ;-)
We had a very bad experience at Uncle Gio's, too. Very bad service and the food was just mediocre. No return visits for us!
Extreme weather where you live! I bet that ends helping you to get use to any temp easier.
When will that marathon will be? Hope close to autum so it is fresh for you. Wow only 100 runners, that will be interesting, nice you know ahead!
So long as you weren't dining on roasted robin....
I read about the plans for the Percy Warner marathon on the Striders message board, and I have to say that the thought of that scared me to death!!! I've never run in Percy Warner, but based on what you guys say - it sounds tough!
Also - I ended up taking your advice and getting Briar the IPod Nano - He loves it!!! I am glad I got it instead of the Shuffle...many more features, but still small enough for him to run with. Thanks for the advice!!
glad your mojo's back! and that you found a new fav indian restaurant :)
Maybe you should stick to Indian food, because apparently that's what you're a decent judge of. I've had Uncle gio's before and the food was excellent and authentic. Yes, the service can be improved I'll give you that, but it's a fairly new restaurant. A couple of really nice young guys own it and I wish them all the best. It's worth making a decision for yorself. You know what they say about opinions and this girls proves that point.
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