Norman Conquest

20 min. w/u (2.5 miles)
Fartlek: 8x2 mins. on, 3 mins. off
20 min. c/d (2.5 miles)
Total: ~10.5 miles

The Three Musketeers were up and at 'em early this morning, as we rendezvoused with Craig at his casa east of town on Tecumseh. The Norman Conquest bike tour was taking place this morning and we were charged with manning the first water stop. Fortunately, we were also given the latitude to get in a run while we were out there, which meant Jordan would be tackling a tempo effort while I would attempt a fartlek. This is the only place in all of Oklahoma where I've seen even a semblance of a hill, and I have to say that these rollers were pretty legit. I was definitely glad I would be running for time and not for distance, as I'm pretty sure I was waddling at walking pace up some of the steeper ascents.

As Jordan noted in his blog, the best part about the run today was the noticeable dip in both temperature and humidity. Even though the rolling hills of Tecumseh afforded little shade, I never felt overly hot nor parched as temperatures hovered in the low 70s the entire time. While I wouldn't say I necessarily enjoyed this fartlek--it seemed to me that all my "on" segments took place on the uphills, although this couldn't be entirely true--things could have been a lot worse. I don't plan on venturing out to these hills on a daily basis but it's good to know that they're here for the taking whenever we want to break up the monotony.