Running Week - December 10th - 16th 2007

[yellow]

Got the new shoes!

I got some new ones also, for running on the TM, and they are definitely going to take some getting used to. They are so much softer than trail shoes, and they are HOT! Ai! I think I'm so used to the stiffness of trail shoes that my feet don't know what to do with these new softies. I got the Nike Bowerman Air Zoom Vomero. Not cheap, but they were the only "road" shoe I liked.

But...I was fortunate enough to squeeze in a lovely 10 mile trail run on packed snow yesteday. Hubby and I XC skied this afternoon, so I skipped running. Such a pretty day.

I LOVE winter!

[alpinerabbit]

On Sunday, boyfriend and I repeated the race that was "my first" a year ago: 8.6 km in 4 rounds, with a hill on each.
The goal was to either get the same time but feel better, or be a little faster even.

It was freezing, but dry, and as soon as we were off, the cold was not noticeable anymore. I did feel better - last year on round 3 I got lactic acid in my legs already, started getting side stitches and energy dropping off, me thinking why is boyfriend speeding up, and him thinking why is she slowing down - a big sufferfest on round 4.
This year was fine. Heart rate was high - around 170 in round one and then up to 188 and such, in the end I averaged 182, one bpm higher than last year.
I managed to turn it up one gear (awright, maybe only 1/10th of one gear) on the last 1K or so, and lo and behold, at 47:34 - minus 40 seconds to last year. Or so I thunk.

Turns out I remembered my time from last year as 48:15 when it was really 47:15.

But the feeling better part of it is worth those 19 seconds. Coulda lost them any time in the "traffic jam" -
A total of about 8000 had signed up for our distance. They start them in waves of well, about 2000 I guess. There was trouble passing folks.

So the training has paid off - even though I could not do all of the plan.

[Possegal]

i actually ran a 5 mi race in baltimore last saturday - the celtic solstice 5 miler. i haven't been doing a lot of running lately, and by lately i mean the last 8 or so years since my knee injury. my niece talked me into signing up for this and it was a classic - well this seemed like a good idea 6 months ago. it was very cold, but at least dry. my goal was to run the whole way and do it under an hour. i did it in 55 minutes and ran the whole time. kinda fun actually. now maybe i need to find another race to plan for, just maybe not when it's so cold.