All Downhill From Here

Thursday my LTR class ran under 14th Street through the tunnel at 24th Avenue, and we made it almost to 10th Street before we turned back. It was a scenic route, mostly on paved pathways instead of streets, but we paid for the scenery with a few rolling hills.

At the top of the first downhill I had to tie my shoe (shucks), which meant I had to run quickly down to catch up. Wheee! I whizzed past them with airplane arms outstretched and a big goofy grin on my face. Then I found a shred of dignity and trotted sedately alongside them for a while, until the next descent dragged me down into silliness again. Wheee!

Ah, well, I kept them smiling for most of the run, which is part of my role.

After class I stretched a bit with the students, and then headed out on my own up the 3-minute hill near the store 6 times. I made it up 4 times before I turned around to see Richelle running up behind me. Her coach had written “1 minute of squats” into her program,  so we, um, squatted together at the top.

I was quite happy to see Richelle on the hill – it made those last two hills much easier to climb. We lunged for a minute after her second hill, and squatted again after the last one.

This morning I got out with the Tech Shop’s halfathon group again. We ran down 19th Street from Northmount aaaallllll the way to Memorial Drive. There was a fabulously steep downhill on the way, which sucked me down like a roller coaster car. I couldn’t help but yell out a big wooooHOOO! as I careened down it. I paid for the sprint with tiredness later, but it was worth it.

The group was doing 16k but a) I didn’t feel like slogging that far, and b) I’m not training for a halfathon, so I trotted perkily near the front of the group for the first 6k or so and then peeled off back to the store on a short cut.

The short cut involved running Hospital Hill in front of the Foothills Hospital, so I didn’t get off too easy. I ran most of it, only walking the stretch with the big ol’ trees in the top half. I sucked down a yummy mint chocolate Gu at about an hour, just before running through the University campus.

The snow was falling in big, fluffy flakes and melting on my face. I love that tingly feeling! I was glad to have solid ground under my feet, and thought about all the deep, deep snow my eastern friends have endured this winter.

The route was fairly flat with a small dip between the Olympic Oval at the University and the store. I carefully avoided a couple of Canada geese, who reluctantly waddled off the path for me.

After the gel I didn’t check my watch until I made it back to the store, at 1:30:11. Perfect! I meant to do that.

I just wanted that on the record.

Last week I didn’t run any hills and I’ve completely neglected my speed work for the last month, BUT I did run up 6 x 3 minute hills tonight after our 45 minute clinic wog, so there.

It was very cool that Richelle came out and did some hills after running with her clinic too, even though her class ran twice as long as mine.

I could have settled for five hills, but I knew I could do six. So I did.

Last night our learn to run class started on the fourth week of training, with 9 sets of walk 3 minutes, run 2. As we began the session, I exhorted the group members to find their own individual paces. As the running portions are getting longer the group will start to spread out, and the front runners will loop back regularly for the others.

This week there seems to be even less ice than usual. I don’t need ice as an excuse to fall, though. Nooo, I can fall any old time. Take last night, for instance, when I went to loop back and slipped on a patch of pea gravel. I bounced back pretty quickly, but not before everyone caught me demonstrating an impromptu mid-run push-up in the middle of the road.

You’d think I’d have learned from the last time I fell during a loop-back turn a couple of Saturdays ago. I fell on the same, newly-healed knee, so at least it’s experienced at healing. This time it was slightly more than bruised. I suffered a little road rash/burn through my leggings and it stung like crazy on the drive home. Nothing serious, though. I just need to practice my Instructor’s Pirouettes.

Tonight I also worked some more on my bike attitude. I tell you, it is much easier to stay on the bike now that it has my comfy gel seat on it. I stayed on for about an hour this time.

That light at the end of the tunnel – can you see it? Spring is coming. Yes, it is.

We’ve got a crazy-tight activity schedule this week, but soon the indoor soccer season will be over and I can see some blissfully bright blank spots on the calendar. I’m not in a rush for it to end, because I love watching the boy play, but he’s ready to move on to other things for a while.

The sun is getting up earlier in the morning and staying up later at night. Soon we’ll be able to relax a little more into our evening runs, without having to keep watch for frozen puddles in the dark. With spring comes the last race of our beloved CRR XC series, but there are other goals calling me further into the year, as well.

This week I didn’t train very hard at all. I ran 1.5runs/3.5walks x 9 times with the LTR group on Monday and Thursday, but I didn’t do anything beyond that. No time on the bike, no extra fartleks or hills post-class, nothing. I had little twinges and felt tight and tired, and couldn’t figure out why. Then on Friday I looked back at my race report from last weekend I realized that maybe I had a little recovering to do.

Saturday I made up for the week by showing up back at the Tech Shop and tagging along again with their half marathon group. This time I hung in there for the whole 14k, which turned out to be more like 15. We ran 10/1’s and I even remembered to eat a gel at about 55 minutes.

Do you know there is chocolate mint GU? Given that all week I’ve been craving Junior Mints, this gel hit the spot. I have to buy the rest of the box – they’re a seasonal flavour. I don’t take gels on short runs, hmmm. I guess I’m going to have to run longer more often.

I stuck with the pack for the first 10k, and then they got away on me. I could still see them, and this group is great for looping back, but the last few km were a struggle. It was good to have that, though. I needed some time to work on stuff, physically and otherwise, alone.

I ached the rest of the day, but it was a good ache. This morning I felt so righteous, I even remembered to get on the bike for a while.

You know, I just might be learning to look forward to long runs again. Can you see that little ray of hope?

Click on the photo above to check out Dawn‘s photos from Saturday’s race! Her images show how beautiful the weather was, what the terrain was like, and the emotions of the racers before, during and post race. You can just about taste how fresh the air was.

I especially like the series of photos starting here, for obvious reasons.

This week my Learn to Run class ran one minute at a time, interspersed with 4 minute walk breaks. This program has a very, very gradual build, which I think is best for helping the body to solidly recover from each run’s challenge. We repeated our sets 8 times, for a total of 40 minutes. Thursday I led the class in a short stretching routine after the run.

Monday night I didn’t do any speed work after class. I was still recovering from the previous day’s snowshoeing. I did do an extra 5 minute run with someone from the 10k group who needed one more set and needed company. That was nice; just what I needed, too. Thursday I ran 5 of the same 3 minute hills I’d done the previous Thursday. Three minutes up, 2 minutes down, for 25 total hilly minutes.

We had a couple more new students show up Thursday, which is great at this early stage in the course. One of the “new students” is an old friend of mine, a running role model for me, who’s had a couple of set-backs in her running career and is hoping to re-start again. I hope this gentle program is just what she needs.

Re-starting is something runners do a lot. Sometimes I refer to myself and some other running buddies I know as “chronic beginners”. There are months when every time I lace up my shoes it feels like I’m starting over. I am comforted, though, by the fact that the more often I begin, the easier it is to continue.

I need to remember that with my bike training; to start it more often. So far I managed twice on the bike last week and didn’t get back on it this week. Tomorrow, I will get on the bike first thing in the morning, yessirree.

Today, however, I’m heading out to race the Weaselhead 8k XC. Yippee!