Lake Geneva

This past weekend my wife planned an impromptu family trip up Lake Geneva on Friday, which just so happened to coincide with the day I was planning on knocking out a 20 mile run. My original plan was to try and squeeze it in before driving up there, but after doing some research on the area, I found what appeared to be a perfect alternative. While the details were somewhat sketchy, there were many references to a 21 mile lakeshore walking path that ran along the entire perimeter of Geneva Lake. I couldn't find a map of it or details on what exactly this path consisted of, but it seemed to exist, so I decided to give it a try.

We got there around midday, and soon after that I headed out to find the trail. The path started out innocently enough in downtown Lake Geneva. You start on a sidewalk, which leads you to a paved waterfront path. However, from there, you are completely at the mercy of each individual homeowner as to what the path will be made of. Some used cobblestone to pave their path, some used wood planks, some used nothing at all. The run turned into a 22 mile survival march, with really cool scenery. Since the entire run took place running through people backyards, you did get to see some pretty impressive houses. All I kept thinking was how much it must cost to maintain these places on a monthly basis. I mean landscaping alone must run into the $1000's. Maybe someday. The run definitely wasn't blazing fast, but since I forgot my Garmin at work, I don't really have specifics. It took me about 2:35 to go what was about 22 mile though. I've heard they have what they call a euro marathon that follows this same "path," that is run in the late spring. I might have to give it a go next year.

After the run, my right foot was really hurting me. I have quite a few minor problems with this foot and they all were screaming at me. I think it probably had something to do with the 2 and a half hours of running on uneven surfaces. There was definitely a little more twisting and turning going on down there than usual.

The next day, was filled with swimming, and traveling back home, and then birthday parties, and sadly, no running. On Sunday I did 2 runs of 12 and 7 miles with one set of 10 striders. Both runs were done at a relaxed pace and the foot gave me no problems. For the week I did the following:

Mon: 8 Miles
Tues: 16 Miles @ 6:26
WedAM: 9 Miles @ 6:46
WedPM: 7 Miles relaxed
Thurs: 9 Miles W/5 @ 5:40 Pace
Fri: 22 Miles
Sat: Nothing
SunAM: 12 Miles with 10 strides
SunPM: 7 Miles Relaxed
90 miles for the week

Today I went out with the thought that I would do whatever my legs would let me. I'd like to consistenly run two tempo runs per week along with one medium run and one long run per week. In order to accomplish this, Monday becomes a pretty key day for me. I was hoping they wouldn't feel too beat up from last week today so I could do a longer tempo run (7 Miles) at around race pace (6 min/mile). After a 2 mile warmup, I still wasn't convinced that I'd be able to do anything up-tempo, but decided that I'd give it a shot and see what happens. The legs felt like they were working hard during those first two miles, but my breathing was easy and I had a feeling I wasn't moving nearly as fast as I thought I was. This was confirmed when I finally allowed myself to look down at my pace after 2.5 miles and I saw that my pace was at 6:19. Shortly after that though, something seemed to click into place and I started to find my groove. The pace dropped considerably at that point as the run slowly morphed into a progression run. The splits for the 7 miles were as follows: 6:17, 6:23, 6:03, 5:49, 5:43, 5:51, 5:40.