Chapter 2 page 279 - TR 96 12 miles of hills

As you may remember from Tuesday's post - this is a cut back week on our training schedule.  That said, we thoroughly enjoyed our big city 6 mile hill run on Tuesday.  Additionally, next week our only free day to do a long run was on Monday (maybe Wednesday if we stayed in town, but it would definitely be dark before we finished).  We looked at Monday's forecast  . . . it was suppose to be 100% chance of thunderstorms and 50-60 mph winds!  That would make for a crazy long run so "C" and I decided that today would be our "next week's" long run!  We drove to the big city to do a double lap of our Tuesday excursion.  We were pretty psyched about it.  The forecast was sunny & 70's, though the actual conditions were 46 degrees, 98% humidity, and completely overcast!!  Hmmm, gotta love the weathermen!

We set out with a plan to do 2 laps of exactly what we did on Tuesday - with a small rest/potty break/water refill between the 2 laps.  The first lap starts with a path that is wide open (so the wind made it a challenge) and because it's just in the wide open, it's a little boring.  We soon got to the "meat" of our route.  We decided we would do our first lap exactly as we had done it on Tuesday and for the second lap we would go in reverse so that we would get the hills going the opposite direction.  One route is basically a square with the exception on one of the sides we extend by running another 1/2 mile then turn around and come back so that we can finish the square.  I suggested that those serious hills would suck toward the end so we went down and back twice right then and there so we wouldn't have to catch that on our second lap.  "C" was very thankful that I made the suggestion.  As we were closing in on the car (thanks "C" for driving) for our "half time" break - I suggested we run the long way around the path so that we won't have to do it at the end.  Once again, when we got to the end, "C" was super thankful we had gone ahead and done the boring path twice so we could just head straight to the car after we did the square.  Here is us after we were done (like 15 minutes after we were done and we had changed our shirts). 

On the positive side -
1.  We did 2:2 the ENTIRE time except for a 6 minutes warm-up, a 4 minute "cool down" to our midpoint break, then a 4 minute warm up ramping back into our 2nd lap, and we didn't cool down until after we reached the 12 mile point and turned off the stop watch and Garmin (love the Garmin, "C" - thanks for bringing it!).

2.  Our time was 3:08.23 - that isn't that speedy, but we were pretty pleased since there were nearly 9 miles of continuous hills.

3.  I got to do this run with "C" - it was so enjoyable.  I'm thrilled that "C" and I have been friends for just a few weeks more than a year!!!!  I'm thankful everyday to have her in my world!!!!

4.  It didn't rain on us despite the radar showing the red and yellow was approaching quickly!

5.  I didn't once say "I want to sit down."  And, I really kept my complaining to a minimum.  There was a point at 11.4 miles when we had to create a random extra lap of a nearby block when I got kind of mouthy - here's how it went:

C:  Come on, you can do it

Me:  Nope, I really can't

C: We're almost there - let's just do this

Me:  No, I'm serious!  I don't have one more step in me.  I'm done.  I can't go any further.

C:  Yes you do, come on.  We got this.  I'm pretty sure this road connects to the main road.

Me: Pretty sure?  Girl - if we get around this bend and the roads don't connect - I'm gonna curse like a sailor (actually - I can't remember what I said at this point because I was really loosing my mind - but "C" laughed).

C:  See - look, it connects.  We are 11.83

Me:  Oh God 11.83 - okay - we can do this.  (we were walking at the time).  I bet we won't even have to have another run interval.

C:  Yeah we will

Me:  Who SAYS!?!

C:  Laughing her butt off as she realized I'm now arguing like an elementary school kid

On the bad side -
1.  I got some blisters

Same spot as the last few runs (left foot)

Blister (right foot) because the PF taping bunched up - ouch!

2.  The weather - we were totally soaking in sweat but freezing at the same time.  I guess that's what 46 degrees and 98% humidity.


Afterward, since we were in the big city, "C" and I ate lunch and did some shopping - FUN!  Makes the whole 12 miles so.worth.it!

California Chicken Salad from O'Charleys - "C" and I both had this for lunch - YUM-MY!

 All and all, this was much more enjoyable than our boring routes locally.  Also, I'm thrilled to have the confidence of knowing we did 12 miles of hills - that'll go a long way to helping me at next month's Geist half which everyone says is super hilly (whose idea was that crazy race anyway!!!).  Great day of training!!!!