Taper Weekend

Not much to report from the weekend, being as it's the final weekend prior to Columbus. Two runs scheduled. Two runs completed: A short four miler on Saturday and eight on Sunday.

I joined Marsha, Charles, and Janet on Saturday as they were passing by my house on their long run. I ended up with just under five, but that's all good. It was a nice easy pace and we had a good run considering the chilly wind we were running into. The hot McCafe Mocha was a nice reward afterward.

Sunday I slept in later than normal, not getting out of bed until 8:30. It was comfortable and I wasn't in any hurry to be up and about. But once we were up, the plan was for Mrs. P to get her run in first and I would do mine second as I was going a little farther. The weather yesterday morning was a mixed bag with clouds, cold overnight temps, and wind early, giving way to some nice sunshine a little later in the morning. It was into the sunshine that I went. I fretted over how to dress as the wind would make things cold, but the sun would make things hot. In the end however, I was dressed perfectly.

My run took me out the Lester Rail Trail. It's a nine mile round trip to the trail's end, but I turned around promptly four miles into the run. I'm trying very hard to go as close to the training schedule as possible. I'm thinking that my recent sluggishness is possibly due to some over training and I'm hoping a good taper will find me energetic and sharp on Sunday morning.

As you can see in the above photo, the trail was beautiful this weekend. Most of the leaves are at their peak color right now. It would have been nice to have my camera with me, but my camera phone will have to do. The trail was empty for being around noon. I only came across two dog walkers, a couple riding a tandem bike, and a woman riding by herself. I thought about all the folks running the Towpath Marathon that morning over in the Valley. I'm sure it must have been beautiful down there. Chilly, but gorgeous. Pretty soon all the leaves will be down and things will be cold, grey, and depressing here again. Best to enjoy this time of year while I still can!

I'm not the only one hoping for good weather next weekend. The forecast is calling for mid 40's overnight and only 50's for highs on Sunday. But scattered showers were mentioned and I've seen the "S" word mentioned a couple times as well. Snow would be better than rain, but I'll deal with whatever we get. Who knows? Maybe less than ideal weather conditions will yield the results that near perfect conditions have not.