All Downhill From Here

We didn’t run away very far, eh. Dawn and Darren met up with the 10k group again this week, and Darren did 8 x 2 minute repeats at my speed just behind the rest of the group. Welcome to Natasha and Jill, who joined us for the first time last night, too.

We only rested one minute in between each repeat, so the workout went by pretty quickly. Well, the resting parts did. Repeat number seven flew by like nothing, but numbers 5, 6 & 8 took forever. Was it Einstein that mentioned that time is relative?

In other news, yesterday my husband started his first ever blog. Pop over and give him a welcome to blogland. If you know of anyone else who keeps a homemade wine or beer making blog (or a directory of such blogs), he’s interested in making friends and linking up.

CRR Club Night is tomorrow (Thursday). I encourage you to head over and chat up some runners you don’t normally get to see. I, unfortunately won’t be there – I’ll be keeping my nose to the ol’ grind stone.

Go cheer on Brit 🙂

Tonight the Little Runner and I went downtown to the EMS Ambulance Chasers race and surprised Dawn, who was all set to race a 5k.

It was a perfect evening to be outside, and we enjoyed cheering in many other runners too. Little Runner got to hug the EMS mascot, a moose.

Dawn gave it her all and I ran a little ways in with her at the end. I could see she had worked really hard and I’m very proud of her.

Way to go, DAWN!

I don’t normally get to run with the 10k group on Thursdays, but this week the planets aligned and a scheduling wormhole landed me at the meeting place promptly on time. I’d even had a decent, light supper already, which my husband cooked for me.

(I know! Am I blessed or what!)

Three of the faster/intermediate speed guys also showed up, and we ran a fairly new route up past the new Children’s Hospital, by the University, and then down hospital hill where I did repeats last week. The guys stayed with me the whole way and I tried not to slow them down too much.

We chatted about healthcare, high-speed trains, political comedy, frugality, how the 10k group really needs to recruit more members, the recent Harvest Half and Waldorf races, and how one should avoid showering with soap immediately after suffering severe chafing from competing in both events in one day.

I playfully shooped through ankle-deep crunchy leaves in the gutter and we laughed about what would happen if I suddenly disappeared down a hidden hole. Someone told a couple of dutch/scottish jokes and someone else promised to counter with more good ones the next week.

According to the Garmin we covered 7.7 km with a couple of steep hills in 53 minutes. I gleefully sprinted down hospital hill with total abandon in the last third of the run. It was a challenge for me to maintain the pace on the last flat mile or so after that, but it was worth it.

Last night I ran 8 x 400m speed repeats with the CRR 10k group. I did all eight at as close to the same cadence/stride as I could, and aimed for around 2 minutes. I’ve done enough 400m workouts to have a good idea of how I should feel at my goal pace, so it was a delight for me to successfully pull off consistent splits.

1. I was disappointed around 200m mark of the first one because I missed the start button, but I did the 2nd 200m of the first repeat in 58 seconds.
   1:40 rest.
2. 1:58 Use those hips, baby. No bouncing means no pounding.
   1:45 rest.
3. 1:57 Wow, three in a row under two minutes? Nice of the fast guys to scrape the piled-up leaves off the path marker.
   1:45 rest.
4. 1:58 Awesome! I should stop while I’m ahead, eh?
   1:40 rest.
5. 2:05 This was on a dirt detour around the washed out path, so there were a few extra meters. I’m breathing like an asthmatic werewolf now, but there are only three left.
   1:45 rest.
6. 2:04 Back on the same detour. Saved a second – yay!
   1:45 rest.
7. 1:58 AGAIN. I’m a machine. A machine that shoops merrily through leaves during its
   1:50 rest.
8. 1:55 The rest of the group (who are already done) cheer me in!

It really helped to have Leana running 10 – 20 seconds ahead of me during the sprints.

Cool down seemed incredibly slow after all that huffing and puffing. I’m usually pretty tired after that much work, but I felt awesome last night. Maybe these Tuesday night workouts are helping me improve, eh?

Dawn and her hubby were out running on the paths last night too, and gave me a big hug after cool-down.

Saturday morning I packed up my parents’ grandkids and drove north for a few hours so we could all be together for Thanksgiving. We ate turkey dinner on Saturday, which really makes more sense than having it today. That way we could pick at the leftovers the rest of the weekend and the offspring and I could have a leisurely drive home this afternoon. We got to hug various relatives on our trip. The weather was warm and so were the welcomes.

I headed out of the house late Sunday morning to run on the gravel route I’d taken a couple of times this summer. There was a steady wind and the air was fresh, but it was still sunny out and fairly warm for central Alberta this time of year. A canola field that had nearly blinded me with its lemony yellow flowers in July was now all harvested, and the remaining cut straw left it looking like a platinum blonde with spiked short hair, who needed her roots done.

Halfway through the run (about 32 minutes) I thought I might run all the way up the big hill leading north up out of the valley I’d just run into from the south. About 2/3 of the way up the hill I was sucking wind big time and picked a sign post close to the crest as a goal before I would walk. I did run up to the sign and as I turned back to read it, it said I’d run 1 km uphill. That took some of the sting out of walking the remaining 4 minutes to the top. I’d run up for 9 minutes, walked up some more another 4, and then came the fun part; Wheeeeeee down! It only took me 8 minutes to run back down.

Of course, then I had to run back up the south side of the valley and back home again. I walked more on the way back than I’d planned, but I didn’t feel bad about it. It was a gorgeous day and I wasn’t just out there for purely physical enrichment. I enjoyed the fresh air and eventually I hummed some little ditties to break myself out of the walking inertia.

Last night I dropped off Ninjutsu Boy at his class at seven, and then wondered where near there I might go for my run. It was dark out already with a light drizzle, and the CRR 10k schedule mentioned three long hills on the plan, so I parked a little over a kilometer away from the Foothills Hospital and warmed up by running to hospital hill.

After one trip down and up the hill (up = 3:30 min = medium hill for me) I was completely warmed up. I safety-pinned my mitts together and tucked them into my jacket pocket. I hung my jacket on a bush, like I often do when running hill repeats, and sailed back down again.

The grassy boulevard on which I descended next to the sidewalk was covered in wet leaves and pocked with civic election pleas, but the decline was at a perfect angle for bounding happily downwards. I picked up my feet high behind me, so as not to trip on buried twigs.

At the bottom of the hill the quote in front of the Parkdale United Church read: “Character is what you are in the Dark”. Since I believe that running hill repeats builds character as well as muscle, I chewed on that thought while I glanced over at the Cancer Center, and thought of Jeanne, who is mourning her recently deceased sister. I remembered a friend of mine who had passed away from cancer the year I began running, and thought of the people still fighting their battles inside the hospital.

It sounds like pretty serious stuff for uphill running, but really I was glad for the breath and freedom of movement I possessed, and those thoughts made me more determined to use it well. I savoured the rich moist air, and enjoyed the bounce of the curls escaping from my hairband buff.

I listened to traffic and rainfall and songs in my mind, and before I knew it I was up by my jacket again. On my third repeat the William Tell Overture started to play, and I grinned as I remembered a funny WTO video I’d watched earlier in the week. The third uphill was hard, but I ran it all and remembered a time not too long ago when I’d had to walk parts of that workout to complete it.

I ran right past my jacket bush at the top, mostly because I was determined to run all the way up, and secondly because my jacket wasn’t on it anymore. He-e-e-y-y-y… Some pixie had magically made my jacket disappear. Aw, I loved that jacket. I guess I shouldn’t have left it alone on a bush.

I still had plenty of time and a little energy left, so I did one more hill repeat. By now my bouncy curls were heavy and wet, and my speckled glasses fogged up when I rested between repeats. I checked one more time for my missing jacket at the top, and then headed back to the car.

I stopped at Timmies for a smiley face chocolate chip cookie and milk. I bought a few extra for my own kids. The song playing in Tim’s was one of my favourites, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and I just couldn’t let the loss of my beloved jacket get me down. I picked up the boy and headed home for a nice warm bath.

My friends know how much I’ve grown to love hill running, but running a pyramid* is not the same thing. Last night the CRR 10k group ran a speed work pyramid by time. We ran intervals of 1 minute, then 2 minutes, 3, 4, and 5, then ran back down the scale again. After each interval we took a standing/walking breather of half the interval time.

I’ve done distance pyramids before, with 100m, 200m, etc., but had never tried time-based ones. I probably went out way too fast in the first one, but it was fun to just fly when I knew it was only for a minute. By the time we’d worked up to 4 minutes I was sucking wind big time. Somewhere in the 5 minute interval something clicked and I was able to relax. I went out kind of fast in the second 4 minute interval, but I felt like I maintained my cadence much more efficiently. Even though I ran hard in the last 3 bursts, my stride still felt good. Maybe it was just oxygen deprivation skewing my perception.

Lisbet, Leana and I ran side by side for almost the whole workout. I am learning a lot from how well Lisbet paces herself in our workouts, and she encourages me to work harder than I would on my own. It was Leana’s first time out, but I’ve seen her recent race results – she was up to the challenge. We chatted during warm-up and cool-down, but I just shut up and ran during the pyramid.

The skinny-fast runners at the front made a habit of walking back towards us slower ones during the rests. I didn’t watch the clock much, because on the short intervals I was able to keep them in sight. Since the workout was time-based, I stopped when they did. For the longer runs when the fast ones got away on us, Lisbet kept the clock. Occasionally she’d gasp “30 seconds. hang. in. there.” in response to my childish “Arewethere? (gasp) YET?”

It was a fun way to run fast. I can see myself doing a lot more of this.

*Some runners also call this kind of workout a “ladder”.

Our September schedule is always darn busy, but I did manage to run every Tuesday this month with the CRR 10k group. This last Tuesday Lisbet and I ran together for several 2 minute tempo repeats. I’m not sure how many; Lisbet kept the watch and I just relaxed and ran. We didn’t do them quite as fast as 400m repeats, as I was still mostly able to converse, but we kept a fairly brisk pace all the same.

We met Sarah coming back from her run on the same path – she’d missed us at the beginning, but hopefully she’ll find us more easily next time she comes out. She joined us for a couple of our repeats, but as she was tapering for the Harvest Half this weekend, she headed back a little early. Great job on your race, Sarah, woohoo!

I haven’t done much running this last couple of weeks in between the Tuesday nights. This week I got to bake a pink birthday cake and entertained Little Runner’s friends with a “home spa night”.

I hope to return to running more frequently, as now the family birthdays have been celebrated, indoor soccer tryouts and initial team bonding events are behind us and we settle into more predictable school and extra-curricular schedules.

Now, on to the Waldorf Race Report!