December 25th, 2010. Had a few days off work for holidays and vacation, providing ample time to get in my training runs. Tuesday was a fifty minute session and I squeezed in a bit over six miles for a sub-eight minute pace, which felt really good. Then Thursday was the second “tempo” workout à I used an identical route and covered an identical distance. Felt this was a good thing since I really don’t want to push myself too hard and wind up injuring myself like I did during the half marathon training.
There was a ten mile run scheduled for Sunday (tomorrow), but Christmas festivities accelerated the routine. Eric (stepson #2) has been in this week from Phoenix and Chip (stepson #1) and his wife came down Christmas Eve. For lunch on Christmas Eve, Eric wanted to hit Flaming Amy’s Burrito Barn, an old favorite from when he lived here. This started a calorie cascade, as the burritos at Amy’s are enormous (I always chuckle when recalling how they were described in our local newspaper as roughly the size “of a small dog”).
This was followed by a significant seafood feast that night, including oysters (we bought a bushel and roasted them ourselves, so shucking them is part of the messy fun!), shrimp, clams and pasta. Of course Christmas morning was yet another sizable feast, featuring my wife’s yummy breakfast casserole.
You won’t be surprised to learn my blood sugar was through the roof when I tested around noon, and there was one more cavalcade of food yet to come this evening. Add to this the weather forecast, which predicts rain and snow tomorrow morning. The going was getting tough, so I figured I’d better get going. It was cloudy but still fairly warm this afternoon so put the sneakers on (and the new running socks Kim got me as a Christmas gift!) and hit the road.
Headed north on Carolina Beach Road today (I usually head south) and did a big loop. Even though I had packed along plenty of snacks and one of my water bottles was filled with G2, I required no additional fuel and only slugged down water for the entire route. My pace was 8:35 minute miles (if I accurately measured the mileage), an encouraging rate for ten miles and a nice Christmas present to myself.
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