Run #36, Half Marathon. September 22, 2009

So the girls’ KC half is in a few weeks, but knowing that I’m going to be away at the Feast for two weeks, I wanted to get my half overwith before I left. Which meant doing it this past weekend.

We were scheduled for a 10 m long run, so I figured I would just run 10 m with Robin and then do an extra 3.1 on my own. Late Friday afternoon we concocted a scheme to drive down to Cindy’s house in the sticks and run there with her instead. I was a little hesitant about running somewhere unfamiliar for my half, but decided to have a positive attitude about it and have fun.

It was a great day, and a great run. Possibly my most favourite run ever. We got there around 6:30am so we could run before the day warmed up. It ended up being perfect weather: gloomy, overcast, misty. We started from Cindy’s house and ran on the gravel roads for about 5 miles, then picked up the Katy Trail which goes across most of Missouri. Missouri really is blessed to have such an extensive network of trails.

Cindy’s husband doesn’t like for her to run alone out in the sticks, so he drives ahead of her with beverages and they meet up at predetermined spots along the route. I am so impressed. He played waterboy for us for 2 1/2 hours. He took our water, Gatorade, snacks and drove happily along to the meeting spots where he’d read the Sunday paper and drink his coffee. What a great support! Their dog Yanna also ran along with us, which provided quite a bit of entertainment.

I was curious to see if I could shoot for a half marathon PR, but partway along the route I realized that wasn’t going to happen. No one was in a hurry, so we stopped along the way to see the swimmin’ hole, two gigantic catfish skeletons thrown along the side of the road (totally disgusting, by the way, and so glad we weren’t there to smell them when they still had flesh on their bones), and we took our time getting drinks and having a breather when we met up with Cindy’s husband.

At about 5 miles we met up with the Katy Trail and ran it for the duration. Question: how is it that we were running, yet the dog was ahead of us the ENTIRE time – walking! – and would have to double back to catch up with us?? How is that possible? There were some great times when the dog would see a squirrel off ahead and would go tearing after it, again leaving us running humans in the dust. It was a good reminder of how fast dogs are. She leaped into the woods at one point and came back with sticks, leaves and debris covering her head and back. It was really funny. She ended up carrying them along for a couple miles.

So, we had waterboy stops at predetermined areas, so we knew how far ahead we’d need to run until we got water again. Having the route broken up like that helped to make it go by faster, I think. Robin and Cindy ran until we reached 10.6, then I got my drink, breather and put on the iPod for the next 2.5.

I think I actually did a good job of preparing myself mentally for the run, especially the last part. I knew it would be hard to run by myself for another 3 miles after having just run 10. But it was nice that we actually stopped at 10.6 so I didn’t have quite as far to go as I thought. The last 2.5 were hard, but not unbearable. I think it was just a little disorienting not knowing where I was or how far I needed to run until the end. But! They clocked the last 2.5 for me and cheered my on to the end. And then I was finished! YAY! 2:24. Not fast, but probably the easiest half I’ve done. I think our pace was about on par with this past April’s race (2:14), but we just took extra time at the stops and tourist attractions along the way.

And so ends half marathon training #3. I’m actually pretty proud of myself that I did it in 8 weeks instead of the 12 weeks that the training schedule has us do. In April the half marathon was run #65, and this one was #36. Not bad.

Now I get to not run for a while.

Run #26-35 September 22, 2009

Running log, Cliffs Notes version. Mostly because it’s been so long I don’t remember anything.

#26, 8×400. Me and Robin. For some reason this one kicked our butts. I think it was hotter than we were used to.

#27, 10K.

#28, 4.5 m.

#29, 24:28 5K PR.

#30, 4 m destination run to my house.

Should have had a 4×800 run in here, but I skipped it in lieu of getting up at 3:45am and flying to Texas.

#31, 4.5 m with David in Texas. I think David was about to puke at the end. That’s a good friend right there.

#32, 9 m. Me and Robin. Started an hour after I got off the plane from Texas. Fairly insane timing, but went okay.

#33, 25:09 5K. Should have cranked the speed up sooner.

#34, 5 m. Took our time on this one because Cindy’s legs were starting to hurt again like when she was close to having stress fractures.

#35, 3×1600 race pace – kind of. 3×1600 race pace to me means “slow and easy 3 miles,” but it was on our speedwork day so it got me confused. I did 2.75 m and cut out a bit early because my toe shoes were starting to hurt under my big toes again. I didn’t want to get bad blisters right before my half.

Run #21-25 September 4, 2009

I’m slacking.

#21, last Thursday. 3 miles. I don’t even remember this one. Early morning gym, treadmill. OH YEAH! They were playing infomercials on the Food Network, so I was forced to channel surf – and stumbled across another Kevin Trudeau infomercial. Instead of being for “natural cures ‘THEY’ don’t want you to know about,” this one was for finding “free money.” Sigh. SCAMMER SCAMMER SCAMMER!

#22, last Friday. 8xhill. We did this one on campus in the middle of the day, and ended up having to do quite a bit of dodging of students. I felt like we ran it faster than we have in the past. I think upping the speed on the treadmill has forced me to open my stride and made that more comfortable.

#23, Sunday. Me and Robin, 8 miles. It was a nice day – in the 60s. Perfect running weather. Although, it did get hot when the sun came out. I started feeling tired in the last couple miles, but we got ‘er done.

#24, Monday. Me, Robin, Cindy. Old 63 hilly route, 4 miles. I can’t even believe this was during this week. It seems so long ago. The Old 63 hill didn’t seem so bad this time, and it was definitely better than the last time we ran it.

#25, Wednesday. I was in training all day so I had to go in the evening after I’d finished. Me, treadmill, Food Network’s Challenge – Cereal Bridges: Part 2. Basically, creating bridges out of large blocks of rice krispy treats. Pretty ridiculous, but entertaining. Worked on my 5K time. Did the first 2 miles at 7.2 (8:20 minute/mile), then about half a mile at 8.5 (7:36) and the other half at 9.0 (6:40). New 5K PR: 24:43. PLUS I was wearing the toe shoes. The 9.0 mph was pretty absurd. I didn’t know if I’d even be able to keep up, but I did and it didn’t feel too bad. What’s really absurd is that 9.0 mph is still not as fast as the pace Niki ran their 5K last weekend. I’ve still got a ways to go…

Run #20. August 26, 2009

Me, Donna. Treadmill and Everyday Cleavage. 5K. Ran 2.22 miles at 7 mph (8:34 min/mi – which seems retardedly fast for me, but whatever) then cranked it up to 8.5 mph (7:03 min/mi) for the last 0.88 mi. That was fast. And long. New PR: 25:26.

We have a 3 mile run scheduled every Wednesday, and it had never even occurred to me before to try to run it fast. We don’t really run fast. We just run long. But since I realized that, hey, you can change the speed on a treadmill and have it accurately time you, I’ve been working on it every time I go on the treadmill. It gives me something to think about and makes the miles go by faster. Obviously. I’ve cut off over 3 minutes since last week, and 4 1/2 minutes over my last real 5K race time. Woo!

Runs #16, 17, 18, 19. August 24, 2009

#16, me, last Thursday. Treadmill and Extreme Makeover Home Edition (Food Network was about BBQ pork, blah). Right after getting back from KC. New 5K PR: 26:52.

#17, Friday. Robin and me in KC. 8×400, 5K pace (whatever that means).

#18, Sunday. Robin and me. 7 miles.

#19, today. Robin, Cindy and me. 4 miles. Old 63 hilly route. Hard, but not too bad.

Run #15. August 18, 2009

Me, Robin, Cindy. Treadmills and Everyday Cleavage (as we like to call Giada from Everyday Italian). 5K toe shoe run in 28:43. That’s a new PR. I didn’t even think about trying to see how fast I could run it until the last 0.35m, when I gradually cranked it up from 6.5 mph to 8.5 mph. I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever run on a treadmill. I should have cranked it up earlier, because I felt fine.

I think I’m realizing that I put more stress on my right leg when I run in toe shoes. I don’t know why. But when I concentrated on landing more on my left leg instead of my right, the ache in my right knee mostly went away. I’ve still got a big blister forming under my big toe. I should try a bigger bandaid.

Edit: WAIT A SECOND! That time includes my walking on the treadmill at the beginning while I was getting to the right TV station and getting the speed up. That usually takes me a minute or a minute and a half. That means my 5K time was definitely under 28 minutes. YES!!!

Run #14 August 17, 2009

Me, Robin. Treadmills and Food Network. 3.5 miles. Most at 6.5 mph, half a mile at 6.0 and half at 7.0.

I skipped my “long run” on Sunday. Tsk tsk. It wasn’t really a long run. Hal Higdon builds races into his training schedules, so this past week’s long run was actually a 5K. I’ve been running 3 miles for the past three weeks, so I was pretty confident that I could do it. But Robin was out of town and I had better things to do. Oh well. No harm done.

Run #13. August 14, 2009

Me, Robin. Early morning speedwork: 7xhill. We ran a different hill today, and it was definitely easier than the last one we did. (As much as I would like to think that I’m just stronger and destroyed that hill with my incredible running ability, I think I have to admit that it was an easier hill.) It’s pretty handy to have the Rec Center close by, because we were able to run over there afterwards and get showers and get to work before 8. Pretty sweet deal.

Runs #11&12. August 13, 2009

Me, Robin, Cindy. Treadmills. 3.5 miles on Monday, 3 miles today. More early morning hills tomorrow.

Excitement! August 11, 2009

Robin and me after our long run on Sunday. We match!

So on Sunday night we went to bed at a decent time and were trying to get to sleep when we heard a truck come down our street. Like, a large truck. It sounded like a garbage truck. Then we saw lights flashing through our windows, kind of like what you’d see with lights from a cop car. Then we heard the beeping sound of a big truck backing up. Obviously something was going on, so we went to investigate. It was a fire truck.

We peeked out the front door and saw firemen running around our yard, and coming out of our backyard. There were neighbours standing around outside, so Charlie went out to get the scoop on what was going on. There is one house in our neighbourhood (unfortunately directly across from us) that college students live in. Either they’re renting it or somebody’s daddy bought it and let the kids live in it for a few years. Anyway, they constantly get on my nerves because they drive across their lawn and destroy their grass instead of asking their buddy to move their car, and they park in front of our house. Anyway.

Apparently they had started a camp fire in their back yard, and then left. The neighbours a couple houses down must have looked out their back windows and been like, “Uhhh…their yard is on fire.” They went down to the house to make sure it was under control, and there was no one home. They called the fire department, but when they arrived they didn’t know which house it was so that’s why they were wandering around in our back yard.

The fire fighters knocked and tried to find somebody in the house, but eventually they just went in. I don’t know if it was open or if they busted the door in, but they went in with axes. About that time the college students come driving down the street. There was some obvious hesitancy on their part as to whether or not they would stop or just keep on driving. They did eventually stop and got out to talk to the fire fighters. a) They were burning lumber, which is apparently illegal inside the city limits. But no one would have known or cared if they b) hadn’t left a fire burning unattended. The fire fighters handed them a shovel and said, “Put it out, boys.” Stupid, stupid kids.