When One Door Closes, Another is Opened...

It's been an interesting last few days....

Monday, I went down to watch a few friends race the Turkey Trot.  The cool dry weather made me wish I had run it too, but alas I had a coffee in hand stood on the sidelines.  My running buddy, Sue, had a killer run and came in 3rd overall for women and 2nd in her age group with a time of 42 minutes!

After a brief running/training hiatus, she's been back with a vengeance.  I marvel at the fact that I once ran beside her doing speed work...

On Wednesday, Sharon, my coveted neighbour, told me she's tired of running.  I'm a little disheartened to hear her say that.  She's been really pushing the pace the last month or so, and she's started to show signs of wear.  I suggested she take a break from running for a week.  Fitness wise, it won't change much for her December 6 marathon, but it might allow her to recharge her batteries.  I think she could learn a lot from what Sue did.


So for me, I am a big fan of John Hill.  He transformed me from a mediocre runner to... well, something a little faster than mediocre.

The clinic restarted in September, but I was injured and decided against rejoining, and with my Victoria dreams gone, I wanted to commit to taking a couple months off "hard" running.

Wednesday evening, I planned for my first workout with Forerunners.  I was very nervous going in.  It's hard to explain why, but it feels like when you're back in school... and whether you made the cut to be on the "good" team.  With much trepidation, I ventured forth.

I arrived and quickly scanned the store.  About 50 people, pretty fit/young crowd.  I paid my $5 and was given a brief summary of what to expect.  Thankfully, there was a wide range of pace groups making me feel I'd be comfortable in my group.  As the groups were broken down by 10k race pace, I selected the "50 minute" group as I didn't want to push it on my first speed work in a month.

There were 6 or 7 in our group and we headed out for a quick warm-up and some light stretching.  I am not a big believer in pre-workout stretching, but I followed along... "when in Rome..."  But you just can't look cool doing horsey kicks!

The run was a pyramid, running for a short time, to a longer time, back to a short time, with equal breaks in between.  Pretty straight forward.  I didn't want to kill myself so I took it down a notch.

At the end, I said "hi/bye" to a few people and went home.  A nice change from hanging out in the wet/cold for 30+ minutes at JH.

I'm happy that I went and I'm already planning to be a regular.

The Joy of Running

I like to run.

Running is just me versus myself.  No stupid games, no drama, no hidden agendas.  If only life were that simple.

This is an especially nice time for me.  I'm not in serious training mode, so I can explore more.  Tuesday morning I trained with my daughters' XC team and then went for a jaunt through the endowment lands with some of the moms.  After the main run, I proposed an interval run of 1 mile to a splinter group.  The top finisher seemed very happy with herself and why not?  She hadn't run that fast since her college days... (she was actually 2 minutes faster then!)  The following day, CM and I were supposed to do some speed work, but instead we did a 6 miler at a "no man's land" pace[1].  But it felt great.

When the weight of goal oriented training is lifted, albeit temporarily, it's like a breath of fresh air.

I still don't believe in doing anything half-assed.  If I'm doing anything, I'm all in.  It's just now, I'm all into the relaxing/casual running.  It's kinda nice.

But in the back of my mind, I know that this ride is going to end.  And when it does, I'll be ready to jump in with both feet.

"The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it.” M Douglas

[1] The pace between a long slow distance and tempo has marginal benefits for training.