Run Away with Jamie

Motivating Run

Someone once told me you can't dislike something until you have tried it twice. So I decided to run with the speedy starters (well just speedy runners in general) again this week. My better sense told me that this was a really bad idea because not only were they speedy but they were running out in the SUPER hilly Percy Warner Park. The only upside was that I knew my way around that park and therefore could always fall back and run my own pace. Well and the other thing that convinced me was that I knew it would be a really good training run. Unfortunately, last night I got sick and went to bed at 8pm without setting my alarm, just deciding to just see if I woke up and see what would happen. Well I woke up and decided to go for it.

When I arrived I immediately thought I made the wrong decision. They are not only speedy but also not really friendly. And there was another group of runners congregating that all of my group was stressing out about because the other group was super fast and they didn't want to be passed by them. Honestly, if I go out for a training run the last thing I worry about is getting passed by anybody else! But we set off up the hills and I felt great and was even leading the crew. My thought was my these girls must be holding back because of the hills. My garmin doesn't work really at all (even when downloaded) in the park but since the miles are marked I decided to hit the laps at each mile (well I missed one) but not to look at the watch. I will try to copy the lap times from the other computer into here later but lets just say each mile was between 8ish and 8:30ish and the fastest miles were 6 and 7 (which makes sense because they were relatively flat). The times don't sound that amazing but look at the elevation profile! So we are running along (three of us), actually chatting, and one of the girls stops to go to the bathroom. I ask the other girl if her friend is real fast because she seems to be just jogging and taking it easy. The other girl says oh yeah, she's real fast, they ran cross county together in college and she has run a 2:53 marathon. WHAT?! (ok I didn't scream that and make myself look ridiculous but I wanted to). Later it comes out that the girl who I had asked the question was actually a faster cross country runner in high school/college but has been injured seriously a bunch since then. Anyways, it made me feel much better about falling back the week before. I let them go again on the hill around mile 9 so that I could actually get some water in and take the last few miles a little easier as I needed to go 13 (ended up around 13.5) and they were going to stop at the end of the 11.2. I was proud of myself for going that extra 2.3 miles out and back too especially since the road was all cut up (they were repaving) and the uneven surface really didn't feel good under my tiring feet. And while I felt like I was absolutely dying and hitting the wall my last full mile (gradually downhill I am guessing) was 7:40. I feel good about myself and pumped up but my body doesn't feel too good. Honestly, though it never does after those hills.

Map of the First 11.2 and Elevation (I tried to post it there but it didn't work).

posted by JamieW @ 10:11 AM