One (wo)Man's Mountain....

Quote of the Day (Courtesy of John)
"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ

Today was a hill workout day......a "quick and dirty" workout as Marisa put it. I had mixed feelings before the workout began. I was excited because I actually like doing speed/hill type workouts and I really want to improve on my hill performance. I was not excited because it was hot and muggy and we were doing HILLS!

After a short warm-up around the park we began.....5 times up a steep hill at was it supposed to be 5-10k pace. Well, I haven't actually ran a 5 or 10k in a while so I'm not really sure what my race pace would be but something tells me that it is not as fast as I was running up those hills. As I was racing up the hill I thought to myself - why am I running so fast? I quickly realized the reason, I have a competitive running buddy(Amy). I know she hates to get beat and secretly so do I, it also didn't help that for two of them John was running beside us and I think we were both trying not to let him beat us up the hill. This made for a pretty fast workout but also a great workout! I felt really good afterwards, well after the feeling that I was going to throw-up passed.

I am glad that tomorrow is a cross-training day. I think I'll take my Not Road Bike for a ride, hahaha.

2nd Long Run

I wised up half-way through today's long run and decided to run with the slower group. I don't know WHY I was trying to run with the other group in the first place, obviously my mind thinks I'm faster than my body knows I am. So when we made it back to the mid-way point I rested a bit and waited for the other group. I think I will make them my permanent running partners. I actually did a conversational pace, which is what the long runs are supposed to be. At the pace I was trying to run there was no way in hell I was going to be able to carry on a conversation, shoot, I was lucky to be breathing at all.

Today was a good run and we went for bagels afterwards. Food, my downfall....I would be much thinner if it wasn't for my weakness for food. Not to mention I have no willpower. I guess that is the bigger issue. So we go to Brugger's Bagel and what do I order? A cinamonn sugar bagel with strawberry cream chees! WTF was I thinking...I was just going to blow the whole calorie burn from the run in one sitting. I especially felt bad when I saw one of my fellow runners with a whole wheat bagel sandwich with egg and what looked like vegetables. I felt so bad I ended up only eating half of the bagel. Next time we go for bagels I promise I will make a better choice!

Week Two

One week down and 17 more to go! Oh, didn't I mention this was an 18 week training program? That actually works out great because I am going to do the Raleigh marathon on Nov 2nd. I'm so excited because I've talked about doing a Marathon for the past 2 years and now I am actually putting my money where my mouth is. I did PAY for this training so I would feel like I was wasting money if I didn't go through with it and I hate to waste money!

This week we start alternating hill workouts and track workouts on Tuesdays. I'm looking forward to both because I need to get better at hills and I want to increase my speed. Not to mention I used to love running on the track so this will definitely take my back to my high school days.

Sunday Morning Run

During our first running session we decided on the time for our Sunday morning runs. The 1st suggestion was 9:00 am, I'm thinking hell yeah, I can definitely do that. Then people start complaining about how they don't want to waste their Sunday by starting that late to do the run. Someone throws out 6:00 am, I'm thinking hell naw, there is NO way I'm going to be able to get up at 6 in the morning much less run. Finally, we decided to go with 7:00 am, not much better in my opinion but I can work with it.

Today was the first Sunday morning run and it went surprisingly well. I made myself go to bed early instead of staying up all night playing Call of Duty, which is what I usually do on Saturday nights (clearly, I need to get a life). I got up around 6:15 and made it to the park on time. Thankfully, the meeting place is only 5 minutes from my apartment.

Once again, I tried running with the somewhat "faster" group. It turned out pretty well though, even though we did make one wrong turn I didn't pass out and I felt good afterwards. It ended up being a little under 6 miles and I kept it at about a 10:20/mile pace. That's actually a little faster than what I should have been running seeing as it was supposed to be a LSD run. That's Long Slow Distance for all you non-runners, lol. So, it seems as if I will make it through these Sunday runs after all.

Day One

Today was the first day meeting my running group. I have to admit I was a little nervous since I didn't know anyone else that was joining the group. I'm a very outgoing person but I still sometimes get shy when meeting new people. Luckily, everyone seems really nice and welcoming. Our trainer is awesome, I say that because she's completed an Ironman and is training for another one. Anyone that can complete an Ironman is amazing in my book. If you don't know, that's a 2 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26 mile run. Yeah I know what you're thinking.....

Today's run was an easy 4 mile run at the park. I was comfortable with the run since I often run at that park anyway. There are about 20 people in the running group and people run at different paces. I wasn't sure who to run with so I started out with two of the women but after going up the first hill of the run I realized that I clearly should be running with a slower group!
So I ended up finishing the run by myself but it was okay because there was a group of people waiting to cheer me on at the end. It was very encouraging, I think I'm going to like this...