All Downhill From Here

Stolen from Skatemom.

Copy these questions, paste them in this blog entry’s comments and answer them. You don’t have to be a blogger to comment on this one! (Is this fishing for attention or what? You’d think I don’t have any recent running to blog about. Ummmm well I don’t. Yet.)

1. Who are you?

2. Are we friends?

3. When and how did we meet?

4. Do you have a crush on me?

5. Would you kiss me?

6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.

7. Describe me in one word.

8. What was your first impression?

9. Do you still think that way about me now?

10. What reminds you of me?

11. If you could give me anything what would it be?

12. How well do you know me?

13. When’s the last time you saw me?

14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn’t?

15. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?

Last night Dawn and I ran together from Gord’s. Since it was just the two of us (quorum!), we called a meeting of the Penguin Stampede Committee to order as we started running. I volunteered to take the minutes as I set my stopwatch.

Various discussions included:

. The weather: It’s done it again. It rained until we got here, now it’s not even drizzling. Chilly breeze, that one, but at least it’s not raining.

. I think I’m starving my frogs. Should I release them near a pond in this chilly weather? Would you rather starve to death or freeze to death? Depends. Can I eat chocolate while I freeze to death?

. Is it time for a walk break yet?

. How many Penguins do you think will come to our gathering next year? I don’t know. We’ll never find out if we don’t get our butts in gear and start posting about reasons to come and accommodations and stuff.

. I think I’m going to run a little faster to that next set of stairs. Oh you are too? How fast should we go? (pant) This is FUN! (pant pant) Wahoo!

. What race should we do next? Maybe a 10k in September? Which one? Karen, have you set up your fall training program yet? Um….

. Whaddya say, one more up hill? Just a short, steep one, eh. Then we’ll head back to Starbuck’s for something to warm our fingers around.

. I really like your (Dawn’s) idea about setting up a Penguin Stampede blog and inviting the RBF to come too. What kind of template should the blog page have?

. I’m volunteering at the Robert Hamilton 10 miler finish line Sunday. Wanna come with? Pick you up at 7 am, then.

. Man, I love Hazelnut lattes. And running with a good buddy. Oh look, it’s starting to rain again…

Thank goodness for the Tuesday group run commitment! It got me out in my running shoes and Krista and I put in a solid effort in the rain. We followed other Gord’s Store runners down the hill to the Langevin bridge. Once we crossed to the south side of the river and were heartily cheered on by drunks on a park bench we took a walk break at about 15 minutes and I set my watch for speed intervals.

We ran 4 x 2 minute intervals (I estimate about 350m each), with 2 minute walk breaks in between. The first one was great for the first 90 seconds, and then my heart and lungs were very challenged. By the third one my cardio system seemed to jive with my legs better, and I actually kept up with Krista. The fourth one was harder again. That effort took us to over half an hour, and we turned back at the 10th St. bridge. We took a long walk break and gently jogged some more before trying one more short burst of speed, for just one minute this time. I liked the one minute time frame much better! It was the perfect night for speed running, as there were not as many folks out on the paths.

Krista took the curling club stairs back up; I took the hill. It was hard, but I managed to run all the way up the darn thing. The rain had been a gentle, misty drizzle for most of our run, but now it was starting to come down harder. I wore my cap low over my glasses and just focused on the path a few yards in front of me. I liked the cool breezy gusts, the moist air and the tingle of raindrops on my calves. I thought up a tongue twister on the way up the hill: Runner wins a rainy one 🙂 I remembered how Mark likes to run in the rain too.

Now to nail down some race goals, so I have a good reason to be working this hard…

Tonight Krista and I ran west along Crescent Road, down by the LRT tracks and back up along Memorial to the Curling Club stairs. It took us about 28 minutes to get that far, which the map shows was about 4.4 km. We then ran up and down the curling club hill 3 times, and went up the stairs the last time before heading to Gord’s. Krista was an amazing steamroller, chugging along at her steady pace. I made it up and down in fits and starts, but I didn’t walk more than a few steps at a time. I had a great time running in my new Saucony Grid Omnis.

I’m having a great time measuring my runs with this Gmaps Pedometer site.

The map says that this hill is about .4 km (in rounding up) but I’ve only mapped it once, so our total distance isn’t accurately reflected on the site. When I add up the distance using the map’s estimation for the hill and include the same distance for the stairs, because they cover the same altitude, I get about 7.7 km for the night, with a solid hill workout thrown in.

I have to hand it to Krista for encouraging me to do it. I would have quit after the 2nd hill on my own!

Linda and Yolanda and I ran and walked some big hills yesterday morning. The map I’ve done on this gmap pedometer site says we only did about 9 km, but
a) I’m not sure I remember the route exactly and
b) it doesn’t account for the hills in the ravine that we huffed and puffed
up (and yahooooo’d down)

so I’m counting it as 10 km. We took a long time and enjoyed the sunshine and breezes together.

Nancy tagged me with this meme on training:

Q: What are you training for now?
A: RIGHT now? Um, not sure… Still kind of on that sub-1hour 10k quest, but not sure which race is the next attempt. I’m also seriously thinking of tackling the Harvest Half in October, to keep this distance base up, in preparation for next year’s first marathon in July.

Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
A: I’ll quote Nancy on this one: “I’m not fundraising. To be honest, I hate fundraising. ” I give locally to other racers when I’m feeling flush, but rarely fundraise.

Q: What is the furthest distance you’ve run in your training and what is the furthest distance you will run before your event?
A: I’ve run 13 miles in my training so far, and when I’m 10k training I usually keep long runs to 10 miles. Before the marathon I’ll try to work up to at least 2o miles at least once, maybe more. We’ll see next spring.

Q:What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
A: I’ve only tried Chocolate Hammergel and Chocolate Powergel. Oh, and Krista gave me a taste of her Apple Cinnamon one once. I definitely like the Chocolate Powergel best. Yes, I like it. How often do I get to gobble chocolate icing straight! Mmmmmm.

Q: How many days a week do you run?
A: 3 or 4. Mostly 3. I keep trying for 4 but I don’t think I’m trying very hard yet. Maybe if I register for a 10k race I’ll be more motivated.

Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so,what are you doing about it?
A: Nope! Feeling just ducky since my scraped knee healed up. I get aches and twangs every so often on long runs, but when I straighten up my form they fade.

Q:What is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don’t count) you can’t run without?
A: My hat. I hate it when little stray hairs blow across my face. I don’t wear sun glasses so the brim keeps me from squinting. Keeps the rain mostly off my glasses, too. Even in the winter I feel better wearing something on my head, and for XC races, the sillier the hat, the better (though I draw the line at those with jingle bells). I also wear a SmartID tag on my shoe.

Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
A: Most road races I wear my Penguin Brigade Sugoi jersey from the Toronto Penguins World Conference. I never went to the conference, but I bought the shirt anyway, and it races with me in all kinds of weather. I’ll probably wear my pink Penguin Brigade hat, too.I always have a purple heart bead on my running shoe. A purple heart, for the courage to start. I’m not superstitious, but I do believe in symbols as reminders.

Q: Share one thing about yourself we don’t know.
A: Good grief, I don’t hold a whole lot back, eh. You already know I’m a birthmom of an 18 year old darling. How about this: I haven’t cut my hair in over a year. I’ve been thinking I won’t cut it until I break that sub-1 hour 10k, but the longer it takes to reach that goal, the more hair I’m going to have to race with. Maybe if I cut my hair I’ll race faster. Maybe if I race faster I’ll finally go get my hair cut.

I’m going to tag the Kuala Lumpur Penguins with this questionnaire and see what they’re up to. Hey Terence, how’s it going, eh?