Auntie Em Goes Running

Up in the mountains today.  Ran 3 easy miles in the morning, as per schedule.  We then did a hike up to check out the huckleberry fields.  They are coming on really nicely!  I think we'll have a really good season for huckleberries in a month or so.  Still quite a bit of snow up high; no black bears sightings.  It was a huge amount of elevation gain on the way up, plus the road was washed out 1 mile before the trail head.  So I walked briskly up; best mile was around 18 minutes; slowest mile was around 24.  

I ran all the way down, trying out my new trail shoes.  It was fun!  I entered the running down as  easy miles and the hiking up as crosstraining.

Legs were tired, so I took a nap, then I remembered that I wanted to try out the aqua belt thing and job in the swimming pool.  So, 3 more easy miles in the pool!  What is wrong with me.  The aqua belt is kind of fun, kind of boring though, because you don't really go anywhere.

All I did was run, hike, and sleep.  Oh, yeah, and eat.

Its so hard to wait until 6:00pm to go running!  That's when our Monday track workout is, though, and I don't like to wreck it by running earlier in the day.  It rained most of the day, so I ran to the track along trails for warm up, hoping for some mud.  Didn't find much.  This was our last strength workout; we have a 7 mile race on Saturday, then start hill training next week!  

Rainy morning, but not cold.  Still looking for a good mudfest trail!  Five easy miles this morning.  We have a somewhat light running schedule this week, as we race on Saturday, so I'm trying to stick with the schedule.  Maybe can bike ride more?

Saturday's footrace sounds fun.  Its the oldest race in the state of Washington, and is mostly trail out along Chuckanut Bay in the woods.  Seven miles out to the finish.  Then our group will run back "easy".  There is some grade, although must be net flat because it begins and ends on the water.  There is one nasty hill - truly nasty hill.  My plan is to run up this hill very slowly.  My time goal is around 57-58 minutes.  That's basically my 10K pace. 

Five easy miles today, as per schedule.  I tried out the new shoes, New Balance Orange lightweight shoes.  Like them a whole lot!  I didn't even mind the rain this morning, and kept my pace pretty well for the first mile, then things got a bit frustrating.  Splits are:  9:26, 8:49, 8:34, 8:53, and 10:49 (this last one is slow because I stopped to adjust a toe discomfort on the new shoe).  I had to work really hard to slow miles 3 and 4 down to easy pace.  Why is easy pace so hard to achieve?   Why is easy pace not easy to do?  My easy pace should be 9:20 or 9:30.  It seems that I often am just not willing to work hard enough at going easy and sacrifice my easy miles for a fun run.  Clearly I am not disciplined or motivated enough.  

OK, all done bashing myself about.

The picture is my right bicep.  Its a nice picture, but I'm pumping more iron now because I'm not happy with the muscle.  I do like the anterior deltoid though.   I am sorry I cannot make the picture a bit bigger, but I'm sort of stupid at things like that.   

Beautiful morning!  The rain and grey skies are gone, and although cool, it promises to be sunny, with lazy clouds.  I'm happy to see the sun again!

5.9 easy miles, splits were 9:40, 9:21, 9:53, 9:21, 9:23, and 9:28.  These are perfect easy miles.  I rewarded myself by meeting my son at a local bakery afterwards that shows Tour De France each morning.  Watched stage 6 into Barcelona.  Those guys are awesome; I want to be a bike racer!  Some of the falls are nasty though.

Race Day!  This footrace is the oldest running race in the state of Washington, and is 95% trail.  It begins on Bellingham Bay, goes up into the forest, and travels along Chuckanut Drive to Larabee Park, also on the Bay.  Our group ran the race, then ran easy miles back to the beginning.  

Start time was 9am, which was really wierd, because I didn't really know what to eat for such a late start.  I was up at 5:00am, to watch Tour De France for a bit.  What an exciting day!  They were riding through the Pyranees, and it was absolutely beautiful!  I love watching it.  Anyway, I had coffee, then made a bagel and ate like two bites.  Met my group at the race start at 8:15, had a Gu, and did our warm up.  

Because the trail funnels onto a narrow trail about 1/2 mile in, they limit it to 1000 people. And it actually wasn't bad.  There was a brief bottleneck for maybe 2 seconds, then it was back to running.  My Garmin wasn't showing me my pace!  I kept hitting the bezel, trying to get to a different training screen, but it just wasn't happening.  So, I didn't really know my pace until mile 1, when I got a split.  It was 7:13!  Way, way too fast.  My plan was 8:30-8:45 for the first mile or so.  So I slowed down.  Next splits were 8:09, 9:06, 8:27, 8:34, 9:09 and 7:34 (nice downhill finish).  The 9s are big hills.  I walked the first one; its really steep and kind of long, and I needed to be able to run at the top.

I did really well just reminding myself of what I had to do to make my goal for this race, which was to get between 58:00 and 59:00, and have a strong finish!  A friend (in my age group) passed me at about 5, and it was soooo hard not to try and catch her.  But I didn't!  I held back and did my own thing.  I saw about a million people I knew, in the race, watching, passing out water, etc.  It was actually pretty hot (mid 70s).  My doctor was trying to catch me at the end, and he kept shouting at me from behind  "Can I borrow your inhaler".  So goofy, we just talked about my medications mishaps yesterday, and agreed that I shouldn't even carry the darned thing.  It was too funny.

I sprinted the finish, remembered to stop my  watch, and my son and his friend were there. The finish is at a beautiful park, with music, food, etc.  Our group hung around for about 30 minutes, then headed back down the trail.  I felt great, and expected to have a great, easy jog back to Fairhaven, but I was SO TIRED!  I've never raced hard before, then run 7 more miles.  It was a challenge.  My average mile on the way back was about 10 minutes.

Happy Day, successful race.  Finish time was 58:02, pretty much what I wanted.  And, if I compare this to my previous 10K pace, its quite an improvement too.