All Downhill From Here

Last night we celebrated my Father-in-Law’s birthday, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the usual Tuesday night group run at Gord’s. Since the kiddos are away at my parents’ on spring break, however, I had the unusual luxury of having some time to myself before work. I usually prefer to run later in the day, but I have this nagging marathon training plan not letting me off the hook, so I got out there.

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I drove past the large multi-field soccer plateau in our neighbourhood, and I noticed a runner doing laps around it. I thought out loud: “Why would someone just run around in circles like that, when we’ve got such a lovely neighbourhood to run through?” My husband shook his head, ever resigned to his belief that All Runners Are Crazy.

Well, yesterday morning, in my barely-awake fog, I decided to find out for myself why that runner ran up there, by trying it myself. You know what? It’s nice up there. There’s no traffic. There’s a slight indentation of a path in the grass lining the perimeter fence going all the way around. It’s flat, just the right hardness/softness, and there’s no curbs or gopher holes. There’s even a lovely view of the mountains. I still didn’t see the point of running round and round this flat, boring space until it struck me that I could use it like I’d used the indoor track.

My first run around was exploratory. My 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds I steadily tried to beat the last lap’s time, and I had fun racing against my watch. The time whizzed by and I had to get back home to get ready for work, but I’m going to try that one again. Maybe even during a morning.

I ran just short of 10 miles out east of Millet, Alberta yesterday.

My Uncle Carl got married on Saturday at one of our dear family hang-outs, Hastings Lake Bible Camp, and another set of relatives, Uncle Rolf and Auntie Grace, put Hubby, kiddos and I up in their guest rooms not far away, in Millet. The wedding was country-style, with lots of cowboy boots, jeans, and down-home local entertainment. We all met in the camp dining room and then upon a cue as the program indicated, “hoofed it” to the chapel. The bride and groom arrived in a horse-drawn sleigh (yes, there is STILL enough snow up there), and then after a lovely service we “trotted back” to the dining hall for pot-luck, country style refreshments.

An a cappella group called the “Chickadivas” were the highlight of the entertainment, and I enjoyed reconnecting with some family members I don’t get to see much. I had a great visit back at Uncle Rolf and Auntie Grace’s too, and I think pretty soon I’ll be referring you to a new and very interesting blog.

Sunday morning I got up at seven, had some peanut butter toast and coffee, caught up on a little internet reading, and headed out the door. The land around Millet is thankfully pretty flat, which was just what I needed. I’d told Uncle Rolf about how far out I wanted to go before I would turn back, and he said “just go east until you run out of pavement”. Wow, he’s good! I had wanted to run away for 55 minutes and come home, and it took me precisely 55 minutes to get to the end of the pavement.

The weather was close to perfect, at 0C/32F. It had snowed centimeter or two the night before, leaving everything pretty and white. The fresh, melting snow was great for keeping the dust down too – I had wonderfully clean fresh air to breathe. Of course, with my route being really flat and straight, it got kind of overwhelming to look at the horizon so far away, so I let my thoughts wander and only looked maybe 10 feet ahead at a time. I reminded myself that I LIKE the prairie, the big, wide open sky, the feeling of running on a biiiig ball, and that helped too.

On the way out I’d had the wind mostly at my back and shortly after starting out I’d pinned my mitts to my belt, tucked my ear-warmers around my fore-arm, and un-zipped my windbreaker, to let it hang around my elbows. I still had on leggings, a long sleeved and a short sleeved tech shirt, and a light tuque. I ate a Chocolate Power Gel at the half way point while I took a walk break that conveniently worked out with my 10/1 run/walk strategy.

Of course, on the way back I faced the wind. As soon as I turned around I put my mitts and ear warmers back on and zipped up my coat. I was glad I had remembered to vaseline the skin around my eyes, as this winter it’s been especially red and dry after outdoor runs. According to my watch, it took me a little longer to get back, but it didn’t feel like it. I did deek out on a side road for a potty break. You know, new snow makes for very refreshing toilet paper, when a) you’ve forgotten to bring some and b) there’s been some chafing involved. Think Wile E. Coyote and his burning tail.

I felt pretty darn strong in the last mile, but I think that’s because I was on a very, very slight descent. I thought about running up the small hill just west of town, but my watch reminded me that Auntie Grace was making brunch soon, and I didn’t want to be late for that. Yum.

After a quick shower I ate the second, cold pb slice of toast I’d not gotten to earlier, a banana, and then tucked into two kinds of quiches, a fruit and yogurt crepe and two glasses of orange juice. One of my cousins brought her family for brunch as well, so it was nice to visit with her, too.

I was away for the weekend at a wedding, and it looks like I missed a bunch of fun at home, too. My trip up north was worth it, though. I’ve been to lots of Cross Country banquets, but family weddings don’t happen so often. I had a great time staying up ’til midnight, catching up with the rellies, and even got in a solid two hour run.

I’ll post more on the weekend later – I’m heading in to work a little early today.

A couple of runners who love me (who babysit and feed me pb bagels) have reminded me that I need to keep up the speed work or I’ll lose the conditioning I built up at the track the last couple of months. I haven’t historically associated structured work outs with our Gord’s Store Tuesday night excursions, so I think they were a little concerned that I might lose some of my training momentum.

In an effort to keep the speed and yet still play with my peeps tonight, I introduced speed play a la Galloway. Yes Coach, I’ve been doing my homework too. Page 69, Jeff Galloway’s MARATHON! expounds on the idea of having a little fun with your repeats. I didn’t go as far as actually measuring a distance or bringing music and banners, but I did bring a playful attitude and my watch. I set my watch to 2 minute repeats and aimed for 4 x 2 minutes at about my 400m (no talking) pace.

I was almost too late to run our Penguins at first. I yakked too long at dinner and made some bad traffic-related choices on the way there. I saw them leaving just as I was parking, but they didn’t see me. I got my first speed interval in before I’d even warmed up, just trying to catch up to them. Thank goodness Gord had assigned the curling club stairs descent and I’m a crazy downhillnut. I was able to catch up with them. Once Joanne, Krista, Kelly and I were good and warmed up, we had a lovely flat, paved, pretty straight stretch of riverside pathway between 14 St and Centre. It was Joanne’s first night out with us and I don’t think she was up to doing intervals (she’d done an intense session at the gym earlier that day), so I explained I would be looping back in a couple of minutes.

Krista was up with Kelly way ahead of us in my first interval, and exclaimed in surprise as I breezed by with just a wave of my red wooly mitt. In my 2 minute walking/jogging break while looping back, I told her what I was up to and she ran the next three with me. That took us right up to the Centre Street bridge, and we walked a bit to recover before running back up the hill to Gord’s from there. No extra stairs this time – we had put in a solid hour of good running already.

Oh, and from my post’s title you’re probably wondering what I ran into, eh?

My favourite publication, Impact Magazine just ran a little blurb that Dawn and I wrote about blogging for their March/April Annual Running Issue. We got about 5 inches of info and got to plug Complete Running and the RBF, Breaking the Tape, and of course our own blog addresses. The magazine is free at Gord’s, but if you pop in to your local running store in western Canada, you can likely find it there, too. There’s tons of great info, a race source guide, and Gord has some interesting stuff on 10k training in there, too. I brought home a few extra copies to share.

A couple of runners who love me (who babysit and feed me pb bagels) have reminded me that I need to keep up the speed work or I’ll lose the conditioning I built up at the track the last couple of months. I haven’t historically associated structured work outs with our Gord’s Store Tuesday night excursions, so I think they were a little concerned that I might lose some of my training momentum.

In an effort to keep the speed and yet still play with my peeps tonight, I introduced speed play a la Galloway. Yes Coach, I’ve been doing my homework too. Page 69, Jeff Galloway’s MARATHON! expounds on the idea of having a little fun with your repeats. I didn’t go as far as actually measuring a distance or bringing music and banners, but I did bring a playful attitude and my watch. I set my watch to 2 minute repeats and aimed for 4 x 2 minutes at about my 400m (no talking) pace.

I was almost too late to run our Penguins at first. I yakked too long at dinner and made some bad traffic-related choices on the way there. I saw them leaving just as I was parking, but they didn’t see me. I got my first speed interval in before I’d even warmed up, just trying to catch up to them. Thank goodness Gord had assigned the curling club stairs descent and I’m a crazy downhillnut. I was able to catch up with them. Once Joanne, Krista, Kelly and I were good and warmed up, we had a lovely flat, paved, pretty straight stretch of riverside pathway between 14 St and Centre. It was Joanne’s first night out with us and I don’t think she was up to doing intervals (she’d done an intense session at the gym earlier that day), so I explained I would be looping back in a couple of minutes.

Krista was up with Kelly way ahead of us in my first interval, and exclaimed in surprise as I breezed by with just a wave of my red wooly mitt. In my 2 minute walking/jogging break while looping back, I told her what I was up to and she ran the next three with me. That took us right up to the Centre Street bridge, and we walked a bit to recover before running back up the hill to Gord’s from there. No extra stairs this time – we had put in a solid hour of good running already.

Oh, and from my post’s title you’re probably wondering what I ran into, eh?

My favourite publication, Impact Magazine just ran a little blurb that Dawn and I wrote about blogging for their March/April Annual Running Issue. We got about 5 inches of info and got to plug Complete Running and the RBF, Breaking the Tape, and of course our own blog addresses. The magazine is free at Gord’s, but if you pop in to your local running store in western Canada, you can likely find it there, too. There’s tons of great info, a race source guide, and Gord has some interesting stuff on 10k training in there, too. I brought home a few extra copies to share.

ORN: In an effort to keep things a little different for Thursday, I jogged up to the library and deposited three books in the wall before continuing to run the big hill beside it twice. That actually made it three hills for the night, because the library is uphill from my house.

The legs didn’t mind it as much as they sometimes do, but the lungs were protesting heartily on the first hill. My g.i. tract chimed in on the last descent and I remembered that maybe split pea soup for lunch and then chili for dinner might not have been the best choices of pre-running meals. Thanks heavens for the clean, handy washroom at the library!

Now, where did I put that 4-leaf clover that Linda gave me before running my first half marathon last summer? It’s here somewhere…

A few years ago I realized that if I made a commitment to running with a group just once a week, it would keep me training regularly. It’s worked very well. My family expects me to leave them every Tuesday night without fail, and I flush out other Penguins to come join me.

Last week? When I struggled so hard to keep up with Tanya? Hah, last night she ‘fessed up to struggling to keep up with me. Gotta love that pack-run mentality, where nobody wants to hold the other back, so everybody presses on better and harder than they would alone. We stress our bodies a little more than we might, but it’s in a good way, and it’s more fun. According to this recent article, if I were a rat, the running with a group would help me lower my stress levels and build a better brain. It works for me…

Last night we added Krista back into the “pack” and she did amazingly well, considering she hadn’t run with us (and hadn’t run much on her own, opting for other forms of tri-training) since early January. We kept the run flat and concentrated on avoiding frozen puddles.

We missed Dawn last night, but she had other concerns, with her parents’ health challenges taking her attention. Her running buddy Kris had a new Penguin, Mandy join her.