Friday, August 6, 2010

Chapter 2 page 111 - HMTU 40 the big city

So much to tell you and it's already so late at night . . . bed is calling.

First things first, an update on "C's" daughter. She underwent a treatment today and is scheduled for surgery on Monday. Poor girl. We're all thinking about you "C". Tell "A" to get well soon.

Weather: 82 degrees, 80% humidity, UV 14 (thankfully our route was mostly in the shade), slight breeze from time to time. A HUGE improvement over the past 2 months!

Today "L" and I went on our long run (missed you "C"). We trained on the middle part of the F4F route. We last did this on June 26 (see blog post page 87 HMTU 24). As I write this post I'm looking back on the page 87 post. Back then I said "a crazy far distance of 6.75" - HA! How naive I was back then . . . smile!!!! Mapmyrun.com shows we went 7.51 miles. We have been continually increasing our distance week after week so this week we reigned it in a little bit. Next week we will hit it with an 11 mile run (dear God, that sounds soooo far!).

We walked 4 miles and then we did 2:2 for the entire rest of the way. It was very do-able. It was almost fun. I would have to say that it was one of my easier and better runs. There is a section of the route that has a series of hills (there are no hills where we live so this is a real challenge for us). On June 26 we had to walk up them because our hamstrings were BURNING, but not today. "L" and I ran up them like they were flat land . . . okay, maybe not exactly like they were flat, but we did it and didn't even so much as think about walking. I am really trying hard to look for the improvements since I'm soooooo slow and each session seems so difficult.

Injury update:

Blisters - both "L" and I have heal blisters - bummer!

Shins - guess who? Yep me! I nearly cracked up crazy in pain during our running intervals

Hip - "L's" hip which has been really killing her for the past month and really pained her during the Swiss Days 5K last Saturday. After stressing about it all day - it did pretty well. She said it didn't hurt much at all during the walking part and only after about 3 miles of running did she say it hurt when she touched it (my dad would say "then quit touching it")

Adventures along the way -
1. Yet again, I got us lost . . . where the heck was Lexington Avenue (Hey "L" - map shows it is only a couple of blocks from Rudisill)? Well, needless to say we picked another street and eventually ended up where we needed to be. Perhaps mapping out a route is not my forte or perhaps I do better with the visual rather than turn by turn directions. Sorry "L".
2. We encountered several very nice people. A very athletic lady was running and she was willing to stop and point us in the right direction. She was amazingly fit - I want that! Hey "L" . . . I looked at the map again, yep, we should have gone down the dark path another mile (Wow!). Live and learn - next time! We also chatted with a lovely lady on her front porch. She promised to cheer for us during the race. A very nice man invited us to play a pick-up game of volleyball - very nice guy!
3. We found a "lovely" restroom by the ball diamonds. It was a little prison-esque. The sign said "lock the door when using facilities" which was like a 1" thick steel lock. Real sense of safety!

Well, this week was sure a hodge-podge of training (10:3 X 4, 3 miles on my own - puke, and tonight's big city training), but all in all, I'm proud of my efforts and what I accomplished. Next week we're on for Tuesday (short run in happyville) and Friday (long run - we're going to repeat our 10 mile route and then add a mile up the greenway at the end). "C", if you're around, please join us!

Nighty night!

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