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Monday, June 23, 2014

Weekend Recap

We'll start with the fact that I did not run Friday night. By the time I had time to run, it was late (around 8 or 9) and I did not want to stress my legs out that much before the early morning run on Saturday.

Saturday, I was up and dressed, had a moment of panic as our malfunctioning alarm clock told me it was 7 already (the run starts at 7 and was about 20 minutes away), realized it was an hour off, got myself ready and headed out to Durand Eastman Park.

I was nervous about running with the 12' pace group, since there were supposed to be hills on this route. My pace always suffers a lot on hills. But I figured, I need to train on hills if I'm going to get better so...off we went.

The weather was perfect, cool and mostly overcast. The views in the park were spectacular. We started out running along the shore of lake Ontario, then turned in towards the park. I was feeling alright with the pace, until we hit that first hill. It came almost immediately after we turned away from the shore line, and it was relentless. It was about a 100 ft climb over half a mile. By the end of that first hill, I had slid to the back of the pack and, along with about three other people, was struggling to keep from loosing the pace group entirely.

One of the pacers (there were three with our group because it's so large), hung back with the small group of us, and started making it her missing to pull us through it. I remember her asking me how I was feeling, to which I gave the "so so" hand wave, since I was feeling like talking might be a bad thing. Once we topped the hill, I told her basically that I suck at hills. That I can keep the pace until we hit a hill like that. At which point I kinda die. She introduced herself at that point, and started just...talking.

She coached me and the other runners up the hills, and kept up a constant stream of jokes, anecdotes and random tips as we ran. She never got more than a few steps ahead of me, and whenever we'd hit another incline, she'd talk about pulling me up the hill. She had some really good advice, stuff about keeping my arms pumping and my chest up. Keeping my eyes on the horizon, instead of dropping my head like I'm prone to doing.

When we finished out the six miles, I was totally done. I was supposed to do seven on my schedule, but I knew I didn't have another mile in me. I know I wouldn't have finished out the six if it hadn't been for the pacer (I think she said her name was Sarah, my brain wasn't working really well by that point.) After a brief conversation with her about the run next week, I think I'm going to drop back to the 13 minute pace group for that run, there are going to be a lot of hills apparently. I'm trying to keep my ego out of this, and train safe and appropriate.


Part of my decision making process for that was the fact that when I get home from a run, I still have to be a parent. I can't give all of my energy to a long run and then get home and pass out. It makes for a very cranky Hubs when I do, and things that need to get done, don't.

Sunday, I had an "easy three" on the schedule. I was still all sore and tired from Saturday, so I decided to run on the flatness of the canal path. I wasn't able to get out for the run until my daughter went down for her nap. I was worried because I was heading out to the path during the hottest time of the day. I put a half a Nuun tab in my handheld, and had a big water bottle with ice waiting in the car. I planned on taking it really slow.

I got out on the trail and tried to relax into my pace. I noticed that there was more shade on the trail at this point in the day, which was good.

I had upgraded to the paid version of mapmyrun, and had set it to give me my pace every minute. Unfortunately it was giving me my pace in miles per hour instead of minutes per mile, so I really wasn't sure what the paces were. I felt good on the run, my legs were sore and protesting most of the time, but the rest of me felt good. I drank my entire handheld on the way your, paused my workout to refill my bottle a little more than half way out, then turned back. I drank the entire water bottle again on the way back. I did not once feel overheated. I don't know if that was because of the Nuun, the shade or the lack of oppressive humidity.

Also big thanks to Sharon Andy Holderman and One Crazy Penguin for the suggestion of spandex shorts. I pulled an old pair of bike shorts out of the closet for this run and they didn't ride up once. Win! I'm going to go order a few more pairs now...

After my run we headed to my parents house and did some swimming in the pool, although it was more, floating/standing around enjoying not being warm than actual swimming.

Today is a very welcome rest day on my schedule. My legs are tired and a little sore, and I'm trying really hard not to eat everything in sight.




3 comments:

  1. Glad they worked out for you too! Under Armour makes my favorite running spandex shorts. Cute and functional (and with a longer than 2" inseam!). And way to be smart about next week's long run. You'll improve over time, but you have to let your legs get used to hills!

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  2. Awesome!! I thought of you the other night because I was watching a tv show and there were two women running, and the one (high school) girl had some serious 'creeping' going on with her shorts between her thighs. And she was like a toothpick, so it happens to everybody!

    Congrats on making it up those hills! Although you may hate hills, that will get better. I LOVE hills now because when I do a race (which I don't very often) I always hope there is a hill at the end....because I run hills all the time and I know I can pass people at the end. Now let me say that I run hills all the time NOT by choice because every direction from my house for running is a hill :) I also crank up my music loud with a good beat to get up the hill.

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  3. Awesome job on the hills. I ran with a woman from my Moms Run this Town grup a while back and she said that she hates speed work, but if you can maintain your normal pace while running hills it's basically the same thing. So you're getting a hill workout AND a speed workout!
    Glad you found a solution to the riding up issue!

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