Playing in the Mud

Once again, it was raining this Tuesday night. But I'm actually not complaining. This summer has been incredibly mild and if I have to deal with a few Tuesday night runs in the rain because of it, I'm okay with that.

Besides, this run turned out to be pretty fun (okay, maybe not the actual run, but definitely the rain part).

For once, the advanced group got to run on the bridal path. Hurrah! I get so sick of running on the road in Central Park. It is SO BORING after awhile. The workout was pretty tough, but what else would I expect from a Tuesday night practice.

We were supposed to do 4 loops around the bridal path (which is 1.7 miles). The first loop was supposed to be nice and easy. The next loop was an 85% effort. When we got to the start of the third loop we had .5 miles of recovery and 1.2 miles at 85% effort. The last loop was a repeat of the third.

Oh yeah. And the bridal path is mud city. Especially since there are these huge puddles, that sometimes take up the entire width of the path. Steve told us that we'd probably take the first loop dodging all of the puddles but then after that we'd be like "F this" and just go through them. Which is pretty much what happened.

I have to say though, I have GOT to keep my own pace when I am warming up with the advanced group. We all start out nice and easy, then the group sort of divides into two; the guys and faster girls, a big space, and then the rest of the girls. The guys start to take off about a minute or two into the warmup, but they do it so subtly that you don't notice. Eventually Lauren either asks me our pace, or one of the other girls is like "Did we speed up?" or "Are we going fast?" It happens every Tuesday. I guess I can't blame the guys. In the last race most of their splits averaged around 6:45s. But the 5 girls who are always up with them are so competitive that we won't slow down. (OK, I'm speaking mostly for myself here, but no one else seems to slow down either and from what I've seen at practice all of these girls are as competitive as I am).

Anyway, as a result, all of us girls were huffing and puffing by the end of the "warm-up". I don't know that any of us really picked up our pace too much for that first lap. But we all managed to stay together. One of the girls was like "It's so unfair. If we were boys we would be fast too." And another girl was like "No, we'd be faster if you took everything into account, because look, they're not that far ahead." Then we were like "Uh, why are we talking when we can hardly breathe?"

I was not having the best workout. Normally I can keep up with the pack, but as we ended the first fast loop I was starting to lose them. I lost Lauren too, and we stick together ALL the time. :(

But then I did catch up with her on the recovery. This was pretty much our conversation.
"That blew."
"I hate Tuesdays."
"I just feel like crap. And my legs are HEAVY."
"Yeah, mine too. Like sacks of flour."
"I am totally taking advantage of this slow part."
"Me too."

My second fast part wasn't too bad, but I still felt heavy and my calves were really really tight. I just kept telling myself that it was only 1.2 miles instead of 1.7 this time. But when I hit 86th Street on the west side I felt like I should be finished. In reality, I had a looooooong way to go.

When I passed the police precinct I stomped into a puddle that looked like all of the puddles I had been stomping in. But. It was like 3 inches deep. Yuck. Shoes totally soaked. And heavy.

It was okay though, because in a funny way, I liked getting mud all over me. I also liked looking at all the runners with mud caked all over them. It reminded me of all of those Pearl Izumi ads ("Run Easy is an Oxymoron.") It made me feel like a toughie, like they were my war wounds or something. Kind of funny, but in the midst of a speed workout these are the things that go through my mind.

On the last loop I hit the exact same puddle AGAIN (not on purpose).

I did catch up with about 3 of the other girls though, which made me feel good, and Lauren was just a little bit behind me, so I guess I ended up holding my own for the workout even though it felt crappy.

And it was fun to play in the rain, even though we were freezing cold walking back home. :)

(Oh, and I had mud caked all the way up to the back of my knees. But I think the reason that the bus stopped for me and Lauren when it was way past it's stop was because we looked so soaked and mudcaked and probably miserable-looking to the driver. So, it all worked out for the best. :)