This past weekend theroommate and I went up to my family's cabin for some R & R. I love going up north because it means getting lots of nice hill workouts in. Not that I particularly LIKE running up hills, but I know that they are kicking my ass into shape and are making me stronger. Plus, when you can run hills on a very pretty, scenic route it makes it much nicer.
The plan was to get a 6 and a 12 miler in this weekend. I wanted to do the 6 miler a little faster, in preparation for actually starting to do my Saturday runs at marathon pace. I'm not quite ready for that yet, but hopefully in the next few weeks... Anyways, realized on Thursday night that the local 5K was that weekend, so decided to get up early on Saturday and go into town to do that. I did 1.5 miles before the race, ran the 5k at a brisk pace and then did 1.5 afterwards to get my full 6 in. Surprisingly, I ended up getting 3rd in my age group so I got to take home some hardware - it's a pretty nice medal too. I was pleased to see that my time improved over a minute from the 4th of July 5k I did last year, even though the weather was absolutely horrendous at this race, incredibly hot and muggy. I had hoped to pass the girl in front of me because from behind she looked just like one of my college roommates that I don't get along with anymore(she who shall remain unnamed, for those who know her) but I just could not catch my breath the entire last mile. The heat, humidity, and my allergies really did a number in making my asthma act up.
The next day I got up later than I would have liked (7:00), got dressed, ate some oatmeal and downed half a liter of gatorade, filled up the fuelbelt and loaded up a couple of gels and took off for my 12 miler. It wasn't overly hot to begin with, but was quite muggy. By the time I got to the end of our road (~2.5 miles into my run) my shirt was soaked. mmmm... sweaty runner... I did the first 6 on really hilly roads because they were back in the woods and therefore shady, so they were a bit slower than my second half. Plus, I went out kind of conservatively to try to not have a repeat of last weekend's 11 miler, where I felt awful. The last 6 are right along the shore of the lake, so there was very little shade, but there was a nice breeze coming off the lake. Ended with ~ a 9:42/mile pace. Not bad considering two miles were entirely uphill and thus 10:30/mile. I'm pretty happy with that pace because that's what I was running my long runs at when I trained for the Pig this past spring, plus I had raced the day before and the weather conditions were pretty extreme. I haven't decided on a pace goal for the marathon yet (just trying to make sure I can get the miles in right now) but hopefully once I have a few longer runs in I'll have a better idea what my body is ready to handle.
So, 18 miles this weekend, as planned, and don't really feel bad today either. Crosstraining should be a breeze, as long as I stay inside. We are under a "heat advisory" today, because the heat index is supposed to go between 105 and 109. geez...
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3 comments:
and....? was it she?
thank god no, or I would have killed myself for not beating her. would've been funny though, huh?
i wish it was her because that may have given you the extra push. Incidentally, I am reading harry potter and in it the main enemy is call he-who-shall-not-be-named! It is pretty funny (although if they say his name they think they are going to be cursed in the book and we just chose not to say her name!)
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