8 Miles at Lake Harriet - Lessons Learned

Lesson 1 - It's possible to have 'too much wine for running the next day' without being truly hung over.
 My Pooky Bear and I went to a wine tasting last night.  It benefited... someone.  There was lots of wine and even a few beers.  Pooky Bear likes sweet.  I like middle of the road to dry.  We both like white.  I only jump ship and drink reds when Chianti or similar is involved. We both like the bubbles.  We got to this event around 6:30pm and left around 9pm.  I have no idea how much I drank, but I didn't wake up with a hang over.  I only noticed the general 'ugh' feeling when I started to run.  Le sigh.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Lesson 2 - Lake Harriet is crowded the weekend before Twin Cities.
I mean packed.  And mostly with runners.  There were some walkers, and some walking dogs, but mostly tons and tons of runners.  It went from 'fun to have all the company' to 'ok; you can move now' as I progressed around the lake.  I guess we'll have lots more room next weekend when they close all the roads down.

Lesson 3 - Run through the pain.  Or don't.  For sure, true different shoes tomorrow.
Today's run and the Buffalo farmland run I had a shooting pain in my knee.  Which is really unusual.  Both times I was wearing really minimalist shoes. When I concentrated on my form I could make the pain go away.  Which means being lazy and tired is at least part of the problem.  Le sigh.  My plan is to do a long run tomorrow and then enjoy the brief taper leading up to the 10 miler and hope that my knee also enjoys the taper.  

Lesson 4 - Previous suspicions confirmed.  It does take me five to six miles to warm up.  The 10K and 5K on Saturday should be a freaking pleasure.
 
One of my most vivid memories of the 3 way challenge is the 5K being absolutely horrendous most of the way because I was slow and tight and grumpy.  I'm looking forward to Lucinda's company in this 5K race and hopefully she can pull me along.