Sizzling August Runs

[rocknrollgirl]

Yesterday was Long Trail Run Thursday. It was a balmy 80 degrees with 90% humidity. Nice crisp running weather My goal was to work on pacing ad nutrition. I knew the weather would be a factor so I went in with the plan to walk the bigger hills right from the start. In the end, that turned out to be a good plan. We ran 11 miles, hilly in 2:10. Well, I should not say we, my husband was done 20 mins ahead of me and did not walk a thing.

I think I did pretty well fueling. I probably could have used a gel at about 1:45, but I could not get one past my lips. I sure hope on race day that we have less humid weather.

[Crankin]

That sounds tough. Good luck with the race.
This morning, my DH challenged me to "run around the circle" as a little exercise to start the day. This means run one mile around the loop of my street, which is alternatively up a 13% grade (my driveway), down a 10% grade, up a couple 5-6% grades, and down an 8%, back to the driveway.
It was 5:45 AM, drizzly (thankfully), but I did it. My hips are just now recovering.

[rocknrollgirl]

Holy cow, that is one heck of a mile! good job.

[Crankin]

It would be better if I didn't know the elevation, but I do, from having to do at least half of this every time I come home from a ride!
I live exactly in the middle.
I'm fine. DH did this yesterday, and he can't walk. I imagine he ran really fast and I knew better.

[OakLeaf]

Crankin, no way could I do the roads around your house AS my warmup! I'd need a more or less flat half mile anyway, to start. Good on ya that your hips were sore, though. That's what should be sore! I was proud of myself after last weekend's hilly 5K that my hips were sore for a couple of days afterward. Shows we weren't overusing our quads.

rnrgirl, nice job. Boo for hot weather. When's your race?

Today was the third time this month I've run in the rain on purpose. Don't know what's got into me. Whatever it is, it's good. (whoops... reminder to go downstairs and turn off the fan on my shoes... Back.) Anyway. Motivation to get out there when the weather isn't perfect. Getting over my terror of blisters - which so far my longest wet run has been 8.5, and obviously a wet marathon would be an entirely different animal, but it's good to know that Friction Block and wool socks do their job for that long, anyway, even if the socks do hold entirely too much water. I wrung them out on the porch before even going into the house. I've been seeing the letter carrier on my runs a lot lately. Pretty sure she thinks I'm nuts.

I've been bumping mileage too, not completely intentionally since I'm not on any kind of a plan for the time being, but I do want to make sure I'm more or less ready for Columbus half, even though it's not a goal race this year. Thirty-seven miles this week (and I'm probably going to ride tomorrow, probably would take the day off running regardless, so 37 is it for this week). Right at 30 the week before. Feeling good.

skhill, you made a decision about Columbus yet?

[rocknrollgirl]

Hey Oak,
My race is Sept 28th. It is 16.7 trail race called Mountain Madness. Small race. I am usng it as a stepping stone/ deciding factor to see if I want to bump up to the full trail marathon next spring.

[Crankin]

Oak, normally, if I run from the house, I walk for 1/3 mile, so I don't start running until I am going down the hill. I am totally fine today. I think the interval running at boot camp helped me. DH is still sore, but says he's going to keep doing this on days he doesn't have time to ride. I really don't want to do any running until it cools down and I can get back on the trails.

[skhill]

Oak, I've decided to pass on Columbus this year-- it looks like I have a bunch of stuff piling up for right around that date, so taking off for the weekend may not be possible. Maybe next year!

It's been raining the past 2 mornings so I was a lazy slug and didn't run. Today it was not raining, at least when I started out. The rain came later, about 2 miles in. Not much more than a drizzle but it was enough to make it hard to see through my glasses. As I'm doing a 5k this evening, I only went 7 miles, at a long-run pace. Obviously I'm not expecting to be running fast tonight!

And I really don't like running in the evening, but this is the biggest 5k of the year here. I wasn't going to do it, but I stopped by the LRS this week and an acquaintance of mine was working the sign-up station so here I am all signed up. Oh well. I'll approach it as a very large group run, and hope the weather isn't beastly-- past few days it's either been raining or horribly humid, but never comfortable.

[TrekDianna]

I ran a 10K this morning with a friend. It amazed us that they managed to make the loop uphill both ways. It was a nice one, part of it was in the Mt Hood National Forest. It was only in the mid-60s so it was quite comfortable.

[rocknrollgirl]

Terrible Run Tuesday


yep, that about says it all, body did not want to move, weather is disgusting, chalking it up to a bad run day...

[skhill]

I knew it would be a "terrible run Tuesday" so I didn't even try. Woke up feeling stiff and creaky (the cats slept with me due to a thunderstorm and it was awkward) and it was rainy. So I had an extra cup of coffee, sitting on the porch watching the rain.

Ended up not doing the race Sat night. I was going to bike down to it, but found that my headlight was dead and couldn't find spare batteries. So I hopped in the car to drive there, but parking was dreadful and I gave up and went home. Thought about running to the start line, but by then I'd have to pour on the speed to be on time, so no race for me.

But I did have a very pleasant run Monday morning, so it's not all been aborted runs of late. And the weather looks splendid for the rest of the week; school starts tomorrow so I'll be dodging busses but I'm looking forward to the predicted mid-50s temps.

[yellow]

Heh, my Tuesday run was painful, too. WTF??? My legs felt like lead. Of course, the fact that it was 94 might have had something to do with that.

Every. day. over. 90. for. the. last. month. at. least. DONE.

I'm going to try to go run in the mountains this weekend to get away from the damn heat. I separated my shoulder last week BUT! I have found a way to keep it from moving too much. I need to be very careful in the mountains since the trails can be a bit technical!

[OakLeaf]

Oh yikes yellow!!! Be careful with that shoulder.

I had to get a run in today but various things scr*wed my schedule all up. I wound up running halfway into town on the way to my allergy shot, and got DH to pick me up and drive me the rest of the way. Not quite 7 miles. It was a beautiful day for running, bummed that I had to do it on the highway, but better than nothing! It was nice to get that kind of a run though just to see how much faster I go with the same effort as my usual loops. It wasn't flat, just basically one long hill, about 2-1/2 miles at maybe a 5% grade and back down the other side, but none of the steep stuff and gravel footing that normally slow me down so much.

[skhill]

Ow, Yellow! Both on the shoulder and the heat!

I'm 1 week in to my first garmin (a forerunner 10) and I'm liking it. It's been enlightening-- my first mile every day is much slower than the rest of the run. I intentionally start out slow to warm up a bit, but had no idea how dramatic the difference was. Heading west or south from my house, it's been about a 9:15- 9:30 pace; heading east it's around 10:00 pace (that mile is mostly uphill). I also now know that my house is at an elevation of 999 ft!

So today I went 6 miles, starting east. First mile was 10:00, and after that it ranged from 8:22 to 8:47. It's a beautiful, record-cool morning at 51F, and I wished I had dug out a pair of mittens but it's August in Kentucky. Also got a scare when the sirens started up when I was right in front of the fire station-- sprinted clear so they could head out to wherever they were going.

[rocknrollgirl]

Thursday Trail Run

Same route as last week, 11 miles. This week was 14 mins faster. 14mins! Just goes to show you what a difference the weather makes. Last week was super humid.Today...perfection. 14 mins..no walking...no trudging...actual running. Yee Ha!

Hey Yellow, what happened, did you wipe out? DH went down today, says his wrist hurts.

Everyone that is in the cool...enjoy it while it lasts!