OMG … it’s already Tuesday.  That’s how tapering has been going.

I don’t even think about running anymore.  Which is weird because this week still required a decent amount of it.

I’m just sailing along, busy as can be with Halloween and moving my office and so many other real life things.

Not running.

Here was our schedule for the week:

I got my first 5 in on Tuesday, at a fairly decent clip (9:33/mile).  I was still feeling tight, a little sore and pretty tired, but this run helped loosen me up a bit.  I hadn’t run alone in a while so enjoyed heading out by myself and it went quickly.

On Wednesday, I headed off for an easy 4 around the neighborhood.  Amazing how quickly and easily 4 miles goes when you’re used to running twice that on a Wednesday morning.  I got to sleep in until 5:15!

I didn’t have another chance to run until Friday, when I headed out for my final 5 mile mid-week run.  Done and done, and now it came down to figuring out how to squeeze 12 solo miles in amid the 12 different events we had scheduled for ourselves over the weekend.

Ginger’s daughter’s gymnastics meet meant we all had to run alone, since she’s our babysitter, so I headed out at 5:15 on Saturday morning for my first ever 12 mile solo run.  I’ve never run that long of a distance by myself before, and I was not looking forward to it.

The first mile, my GPS was going nuts and actually tracked over 2 miles.  Luckily, I was running a route I was quite familiar with.  I abandoned Nike+ and started up my Charity Miles app and Strava.  Charity Miles tracked less than 0.4 miles over the course of the next full mile, while Strava clocked over 3.  Something was going on with GPS signals at 5:30 am on Saturday morning!

By about mile 2.5, I was fed up.  I am obsessed with tracking things.  I often get up to run just because I don’t want to miss one on my tracking.  I restarted Nike+ just to see what would happen.  It clocked my next 4 miles at a 9:30 pace, when I knew I was running closer to 10:30.  So be it – at least I’d have something close to the actual distance recorded at the end.

I stopped at what I assumed was roughly 6 miles to chug some water and eat a Gu.  When I restarted my app, hallelujah! My pace and distance were accurately tracking, and I continued on my merry way.

Because of these complications, the first six miles flew by – and the second six were around my usual neighborhood route.  I got home and mapped my run – and clocked in at exactly 12.2 miles!  I’d estimated properly, despite getting lost twice in unfamiliar neighborhoods.  My time was also fairly impressive, but probably quite inaccurate.

Feels good to have this week over, because the next two are just sailing.  They’re not even work.  Hardly even running.

I intend to catch up on sleep, drink a few beers, and spend every Halloween-related moment with my kid while I can.  I love holidays and Halloween is a family favorite.