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. :)

Is Ramon Going Soft? :)

Last night it was POURING when I left work to go to running practice. It was pouring so hard, that in the short time (about 5 minutes) it took me to walk from the subway station to the park I was completely drenched. I'm talking absolutely soaked through, clothes clinging to every bit of fat drenched.

I was hoping that we wouldn't do our hill workout, which consisted of mainly hills on trails for my group.

When I was standing under the bridge by the Bethesda terrace I was talking to Ramon about one of my mentees and saying that she wanted to talk to him but was coming a little later and he asked how much later, because he wasn't sure we were even going to have practice. I passed this onto my running buddies in disbelief and they were like "are you sure?" I mean, Ramon NEVER cancels practice unless there is a huge lightning storm. He says it's good practice. And it's true. I mean, what are you going to do if it is raining on marathon day?

Anyway, our workout did get reduced to a "fun run" of 4, 5 or 6 miles...our choice.

I decided on 6 and Lauren was begrudgingly going to join me, but then we had to wait around in the rain for what seemed like forever for Steve to start our group, so we decided 5 was just fine. When I couldn't find my satellites I was like "Screw it. I'm not even going to time this one." Lauren was like "Yay! Fun run!" While running with Lauren IS fun, I think we both still push each other. So fun turned into fast, but how fast we have no idea since I had turned my Garmin off.

Let's just say fast enough that when we got back to the transverse at 4 miles we were really tired (I also contribute this to lack of sleep from the night before and just overall feeling crappy all day. Plus, I think running in the rain is somehow harder, sort of like how running on sand is harder. Especially when it is pelting you majorly.) We were losers and decided to do 4. We were such losers that we actually had to TURN AROUND to do this.

Oh well.

Did I mention it was raining really hard? At some points I couldn't see where I was going :)
On the plus side, I think the TNT team were really the only people in the park.

AND we all got kudos in Ramon's email to the team today:

"Thing#3

A BIG shout out to all those that showed up to yesterday's super awesome practice !!! You have showed us your committment to training, and THAT' my dearest is what will take you to the finish line.

You have earned the respect of this coach! and at the same time help us realized that we are all a bit crazy !!!!

I just hope those sneakers get dry before saturday's run !! :))"

Maybe he is going soft :)

All I know is I am NOT looking forward to 12 miles at 7am on Saturday. Blah.

A Wet Run

Ok. I DO love running in the rain, don't get me wrong...but Monday was quite possibly the wettest run I've ever had. I have been totally slacking on my runs lately. So I made up my mind that on Monday I was doing the 5 mile loop at Lunken. Even as I looked out the window at my office into the torrential downpour, I forced myself to schedule it into my evening. I even IM'ed Bill at the end of the day: Are you up for a rainy 5 miler at Lunken?

He said sure, so when I got home before him, I made sure I got my running clothes on so that I couldn't back out. Then it was starting to get late, so I called him to make sure he wasn't going to back out. He was stuck in traffic :( We decided that I should head out since we had no idea how long it would be and it was already 6.

It was so so so gross out! It doesn't help that there are these big dips in the pavement by the road that fill up with water. INCHES of water. I felt like I was running on an obstacle course (I had to run with really high knees). I was also splashing water all over myself. Oh well, too late now. Then the rain picked up. Needless to say, I was the only person on the course. I was running it backwards, which I was glad for, because it seems to go faster that way for me.

THEN it started getting dark. Fast. I forgot how dark it's been getting lately. AND I was in the middle of the wooded part. So I started running a lot faster. I kept expecting a call from home. Bingo. Right on time. I didn't even say hello, just "I'm almost done! Less than a mile to go!" Bill told me it was getting dark. I said "I know. I know. That's why I'm running super fast!" I could tell he was worried.

Well, I guess adrenaline gets you going. I clocked a 47:21 for a little more than 5 miles. I guess I can do my 9:09 mile for my 10k if I want. I even have 5 more weeks to go!

Needless to say, I will be waiting for the time change before I go running in Lunken at night again. And I'll probably stick to the roads at night unless I can run with Bill.