Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Rocket City Week 3 Days 1 - 3

Day 1 is always a rest day and on Saturday.

My grandmother has been sick. She got sick last Thursday, but got worse on Sunday. I had to skip Day 2 - Sunday's lactate threshold run with Michele, Joe and Mike, because I was at the hospital with her and the rest of my family. The good news is that she is doing a lot better now! And I decided to make up the LT run early Monday morning. This was the first LT run in my plan, and I was a little nervous about it. I never did very well with the LT runs in the FIRST plan last year. So I took off from my house in the dark Monday morning. The plan called for 8 miles total - 4 of them at 15k to Half Marathon pace. My best half marathon was just shy of a an 8:30 pace, and the only 15k I've ever done was a trail run and it turned out to be around 8:30/mile. So my plan was to get the splits somewhere below 8:30. I did the first two miles slow to warm up, and then headed up Hwy 53 to start the LT part. The first mile was tough because it is uphill - 8:40. The second mile, down Interstate Dr., I felt like I was warming up a bit and came out with an 8:20. The third mile I really pushed it - 8:12, and started wondering if I was going to be able to hang on for another one. And the forth one came out at 8:29. Whew! The bad part about this route is that as soon as I finished up the LT segment, my last two miles home have 2 hills that always hurt me. But I trudged on home, feeling all beat up and stuff! I know my heart rate was too high, especially during mile 6, the final LT mile. Here's the splits:


Had I done this run on Sunday as planned, I would have had a 4 mile recovery run next. But since I am a day behind, I had to skip the recovery and go straight to Tuesday's general aerobic 10 miler. My plan was to just take it easy and make it recovery/general aerobic. Michele texted me to let me know that we'd be meeting at 4:45 a.m. at the rec center. Once again, I stayed up too late looking for land on the internet. I finally got to bed around 11:30, and when that alarm went off at 4:20 I SO wanted to just throw it out the window. But I want a sub 4hr marathon worse, so I got changed, brushed my teeth, put up the pony tail, grabbed a gu and some water, some Accelerade for Joe, and my Garmin and arrived at the rec center almost 10, I repeat 10 WHOLE MINUTES EARLY thinking that I would recline my seat and atleast catch 7 or 8 more minutes of sleep before any arrived. But when I pulled in, Michele was already there!!! I was like - You have GOT to be kidding me?!?! Like, what time does she get there? Does she sleep there all night? What time do I have to arrive to ensure that I can recline my seat and catch a few more minutes of sleep?!?! Earlybirds. I don't understand them. I am trying to become more like them, but if I can't arrive 10 minutes early and still be the first one, I give! Michele, have a little mercy on a chronic late chick - please! I'm getting discouraged!
Anyways.
So we take off pretty slowly. I feel some soreness in my calves. We have some seriously crazy drivers on Fredonia Rd. in the dark who, I'm sure, think the same thing about us, but still...One of them refused to move over at all, and Michele had to hit the ditch. And another honked his big truck horn because he had to stop at HIS stop sign for me. And I wasn't going to like make him or anything, but I wasn't sure if he was stopping so I did and then he stopped and I went on and it made him mad so he honked at me. hehe...I got tickled about that one. I mean seriously. The dude got mad at ME because he had to stop at a sign. Oh, the joys of running through the country before sunrise.

So somewhere in there Joe decided to pick up the pace. I was feeling alright, so I tried to follow suit, as you can see from the splits. Our route ended up being a little short, so we had to run down the greenway a bit before finishing up the 10 miles, but it was a good run. I am ready for some rest. And sleep. Sleep just moved way up on the priority list for me.


I love running. As I was almost at mile 7 today I felt a real sense of gratitude for the health and body that God has given me. Granted, I'd like longer,skinnier, faster legs, but the ones I've got just keep on going and keep getting stronger. They are injury-free. And for the most part, they do what I tell them to despite knowing how they are going to feel the next morning. One time last year I had run a pretty hard 20 miler, didn't get much rest that day, and then went to bed. The next morning as I was half awake/half asleep and halfway dreaming, I was dreaming that I was actually lying in bed, and instead of legs extending from body, I had two great big logs as big as tree trunks in place of my legs. Poor things. They just keep coming back for more.

If you're not running long, you don't know what you're missing.

6 comments:

Michele said...

you showing up early is cutting into my nap time!!!

Great runs, if I promise to let you get to our next run first will you let me finish running ahead of you?? ;)

Glad your Grandmother is doing better, will keep her in my prayers.

Trisaratops said...

agggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh you REALLY make me want to go for a run.

:)

Sending up some prayers for your Grandmother!

Phil said...

There's nothing wrong with your legs. You're doing great.

I hope to get back to the long run soon. Thanks for the motivation.

Phil said...

Sorry about the multiple comments, but I forgot to wish your Grand Mother well. I worried about mine everytime she got sick.

Anonymous said...

I have found that the first mile of the LT runs are the hardest. It is such a mental thing. You're doing GREAT!

(I have tried several times to post but keep getting an error from Blogger)

Lance Notstrong said...

You MUST be hitting the advance training program!!! 10 mile runs already in week 3??? How can you not go sub 4 with that kind of plan. Almost makes me want to run another marathon this year....almost :-)