It's that time of year again...festivals, festivals, and more festivals! On Sunday, Sargent and I met our friends Scott and Kathleen (see wedding photos in the 'Blogolicious' post) at the 8th annual Dragon Boat Festival on Sloan's Lake. Teams in four different divisions - Competitive, Corporate, Novice, and Youth - competed for the top prizes (not sure what the they were, but I'm sure there were some prizes) in the Dragon Boat races. The boats were really cool, certainly not something you see every day. It makes me wonder...were do they store these things, and do they just bring them out once a year for this festival?
Actually, the most interesting thing I saw at the festival was in the "dance" tent, if that is what you would call it. A DJ was spinning the music and providing some sort of commentary? on the action on the floor. The dancers? were spinning, flipping, and flopping, all to the rhythm of the music. Break dancing? Wasn't that in and hip in the 80's? Or was that the 90's? Anyway, now it is new and improved and called something else, I'm sure, although I'm not sure what. I was greatly impressed by the kinesthetic sense needed to do something like this. This is definitely not something found in my genes, which is probably why I am in such awe. I would look like I had a serious medical (or mental) condition if I tried something like that, not to mention that doing something like that would cause me to have a serious medical condition. Good thing I'm old enough to know better. I found this video on You Tube, which is, for the most part, what we saw on Sunday. Take a look.
I was very happy with my training this week. Monday was a recovery day, with 4 miles at a nice easy pace. Tuesday was off, and Wednesday consisted of 6 miles at race pace with one mile warm up and one mile cool down. I did strides on Thursday, and Saturday was my first 'fast finish' long run. For this run, I ran 10 miles at about 9:22 min / mile, the next 6 at 8:10 min / mile, and mile 17 as a cool down. I felt really good the entire run, and was quite pleased. Then on Sunday, Ironman Scott told me that I was running my long runs too fast, and that when Coach McMillan (the guy I paid $99 to write me a training plan) says to run the first part of your fast finish long run at 1:30 - 2:00 min. per mile slower than race pace, he means it. So this week I'll push hard on my interval workouts during the week, and just take it nice and slow for my 18-22 miler on Saturday. The bad thing about running those long runs so slowly is that it takes up so much time. To get in 22 miles at 10:00 min. / mile (my race pace is technically 8:20-8:30/mile), I will have to start running at 4:30 a.m. to avoid the heat. Ouch!
Scout got to run with me again this week, on all runs except for the long run on Saturday. She does not enjoy the heat, and I worry that I cannot carry enough water for both of us on the long runs. This translates into me not drinking enough so I can conserve for her, and then I get dehydrated and that is no good either. So she can go along for 8 miles or less. Anything over 8 and she stays home for at least part of the run.
Volunteer pet therapy dog Scout spent some time yesterday and today raising the spirits of patients at the hospice and the hospital. She seems to enjoy the hospice better. Perhaps she recognizes the peacefulness of the hospice environment, the transition to another life stage of the patients she sees there, the finality of the moment. Yes, yes, I know. I'm projecting. Dog's don't have a sense of past, present, and future. But Scout the pet therapy dog becomes tranquil and calm upon entering the doors of the hospice. She knows her job is to stand there and be petted, loved on, cried on, and talked to. Her job is to allow these patients the space to be true to themselves, to reflect upon their lives without the fear of judgement. Good girl, Scout.
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