Taking it easy (kind of)

Seems like I just tapered not long ago.... Well, it's time to do some tapering again, although my mileage hasn't really gotten that high since Boston so it won't really be much of a taper, but whatever. I want to be rested for the Deadwood-Mickelson Half on June 7th, so I scaled back the mileage this week:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 8 miles including 4x800m intervals. Maybe not the smartest thing to do two days after running 23 miles, but I did it anyway (the story of my running life). The first couple of intervals went well, the second couple less so. By the fourth one, I was definitely feeling that 23 miler, so I called it good. I just wanted my legs to remember what it felt like to run fast.

Wednesday - 5 miles. Because I was up late the night before at The Offspring concert in Rapid City, I slept in and didn't run until after work when it was in the mid-70s (i.e. hotter than Hades, as far as I'm concerned). It went alright but then again it was a slow recovery run, so that's to be expected.

Thursday - 6.5 miles. I threw in one mile at half marathon pace and the next one at marathon pace just for kicks.

Friday - 5 miles. Just another recovery run.

Saturday - 10.2 miles.

Sunday - 9.3 miles. For this one, I had Shannon drop me off at the Crow Peak trailhead and told her to pick me up in a couple of hours (after she was done grocery shopping at Wal-Mart....a double bonus for me in that I get my run in AND avoid Wal-Mart). The Crow Peak trail takes you 3.5 miles from the trailhead to the summit, rising about 1,600 feet. There is also a 0.5 mile spur trail (1 mile total out and back) to Beaver Ridge. On the way up, I ran out to Beaver Ridge, so my total mileage to the top was about 4.5. The first half or so of the Crow Peak trail was fairly runnable, but it got markedly tougher on the second half, so some power hiking was definitely involved. All told, though, I probably ran about 90% of the uphill and got to the top with a 12:48 pace, not bad for ascending 1600 feet (actually more because of the Beaver Ridge detour). I hung out on top for maybe 5 minutes and took some pictures before beginning my descent. It felt like I was setting a blazing pace on the way down, even though it was all of about 9:30 miles. I skipped the Beaver Ridge spur on the return trip and when I got back to the parking lot Shannon wasn't there yet so I set off down Higgins Gulch Road back toward Spearfish, figuring I'd run into her (literally) at some point. A couple miles down the road, I did. Overall, a fairly slow 9.3 miles, but one helluva leg workout.

Total - 44 miles

In addition to the usual running escapades, we had an action packed weekend. It started off on Saturday morning with Caiden's last soccer game of the spring. Shannon's mom and sister were in town from Montana, and her dad, another sister and one of our friends were at the game and Caiden wanted badly to score a goal for everyone. Turns out he came damn close as he tallied 6 goals (his most ever in one game) to lead his team to 6-3 win.

After that, it was back home to make the final preparations for Chloe's birthday party. She actually turns 4 on June 2nd, but we wanted to have her party on the weekend so everyone could make it. She's a stereotypical girl, so she's totally into horses, Barbies, and princesses. She had a horse themed party (Flicka is her favorite movie). We had horse cupcakes, played pin the tail on the donkey and busted open a horse pinata.

When all that was done, we loaded into the car and headed into Spearfish to see the movie Up. Caiden says it was the funniest movie he's ever seen in his life (all 5 years of it) and Chloe liked it too and was very relieved that it had a happy ending (as if Disney Pixar movies ever end on a sad note).

On Sunday, after picking me up from my Crow Peak run, we headed to the new waterpark in Spearfish. Caiden and Chloe think it's the greatest place on earth, and they're not even tall enough to go down the waterslides yet. I'm guessing we'll be back there again this summer.

This week: more taper, Caiden's first two t-ball games, preschool graduation and his first kids marathon, and Shannon and my own half marathons. Must be summer, because suddenly there's a lot of crap going on...