Run - Breakfast - Ride

That was my morning excercise and all finished before noon! The purists (whoever they are) would probably tell me that breakfast in between is not appropriate. The purists do not have the awesome running and walking friends that I have. We slog through rain, heat, snow and cold often and together. It would take a serious family emergency to make me miss breakfast (or other social opportunity with them). They are my second family.
SOMEONE (ok me) suggested a 6:00 am start for those of us doing 12 today. The 4:30 am alarm had me questioning my sanity and wondering how many others may have been muttering at me as well. Still once you get your butt out of bed it's not so bad and there ended up being 10 of us taking off from the diner trailhead at 6 am.

I started off at 3 and 1 intervals through the first three miles. I was feeling pretty good so I switched to 4 and 1 for the next 3. I tried to push my run intervals a bit. I probably shouldn't do that on long run Saturdays but I had it in my head that I wanted to keep under 12 minutes miles (my long run average). I accomplished that for the first 6. Unfortunately, time and again people say go slow on the way out and pick it up on the way back. And there is a reason for that. I ended up switching back to 3 and 1 and my average for the whole run was over 12 minute miles. Still I finished it and really didn't feel too bad. Here is my run off the Garmin.

I tried to do without gus or chomps this time. I packed rehydrated dried apricots and chocolate covered raisins today. I had one apricot and three raisins at mile 1 (by this time it had been 1.5 hours since grabbing a glass of milk and a blueberry muffin on the way out the door) and repeated every 2 miles. I stopped at mile 7 when I had a very slight intestinal cramp. It only lasted a few minutes but I think next time I'll go every 3 miles instead of 2. I wore the camelback today. It felt heavy and uncomfortable at the beginning but after a mile I was fine and glad I had it. I'm not sure why it was weird at the beginning. Probably wasn't sitting right on my back and I was too intent on my time to fix it. :(

I have to say that doing your homework (weekday workouts) makes a big difference. This route was flat for the most part. There are only three spots with significant climbs and I was pleased to make two of them without wanting to stop before, during or after. The third is between mile 9 and 8 on the return winding up the hill and around the bend to go over the creek. I dragged out my run portion so that the walk came for that. *Shrug*.

I was grateful for company on the way back too. Caroline B started at 7 am to do 10 and turned aournd when she and I met on the trail. We finished the last five together. Having someone to chat with always makes the miles go by pleasantly.

We all had a wonderful breakfast and visit. I estimate there were at least 22 of us at breakfast. The Collegeville Diner is right on the Perkiomen Trail and doesn't mind sweaty, disheveled looking runners and walkers a bit. The food is good too!

I drove home and got on the bike. Here is the route via Garmin. It was just over 10 miles as planned. In the interest of full disclosure I had trouble coming up Rose Valley Road. I had to get off and walk the latter part of it. I just didn't have enough in my legs to keep moving. So I have a challenge now - to make that route without getting off the bike.

In and around where I live it's hard to stay flat. I learned that early in my running. You can stay flat but you have to run circles basically. And really I don't want to stay flat I have to do hills eventually. I knew that my chosen route today was going to be a net descent for the first 5 miles. I purposely chose Rose Valley Road to come back figuring that if I struggled at least it wasn't as busy a street as 252. What I forgot was that Rose Valley Road goes downhill even further before coming back up again. UGH!

I'm questioning my route for tomorrow now. I wanted to extend my distance to 15 and was going to go out Providence Road to West Chester Pike and come back through Ridely Creek State Park. I wonder now if I'm ready for the hills on Providence Road. They would be earlier in the ride, not as steep and I will not have run 12 before them so maybe it will be ok. I'll see how I feel in the morning. The alternative is to put the bike in the car and head out to the Schuylkill River Trail. I can't avoid hills forever nor do I want to but I could practice them on shorter specific rides during the week. I don't want to do too much too fast and get hurt or discouraged.

Keeping up with myself; Lessons learned on a hilly 10 mile course.

Today, after much back and forth in the week leading up to it I finally settled on running the Quakertown Rotary Run for Youth. It is a 10 mile run that Maggi suggested - or as more appropriately HELPED Julius and I decide to run. I'm glad for her help.

I wanted to treat this as a training run. It was the right amount of miles; the race fee was for a good cause and given the weather conditions it was more likely I could run with people if I attended the race. As it turned out the rain pretty much stopped just before we started and the sun came out for my last half mile.

So as a training run I set my goal at anything under 2 hours. About 2/3 of the way through I was convinced I wasn't going to make it. I did not have my watch (I don't race with it) and being a local race there were no timers at the mile markers; only at the end.

This hills on this course made the 8th street hill in Media, the Audobon Loop and the Valley Forge loop look like child's play. We also had some nice long slow downhills and one 11% grade downhill but the ups got me. Good news is that the got my legs more than my cardio. I was also pleased that I didn't let the hills get into my head. I walked more than I would have liked but I still made it in less than 2 hours so all is good.

Maggi and Julius eventually (about halfway) put some distance between us and ultimately were a good half mile ahead of me. If it wasn't for Julius' tallness and Maggi's bright  colors I would have lost sight of them completely. It was after our separation that I heard footstesp behind me. Despite that this was supposed to be just a training run I couldn't help thinking I did not want to be passed or left in the dust by anyone else. This got me to pick up the pace for a bit and I'm happy to say it didn't hurt to do so - for a little bit anyway. I finally backed off again not wanting to risk not having anything left for the final hill. So the feet and the gentleman attached to them pulled up beside me and he said, "I'm having trouble keeping up with you". I replied "I'm having trouble keeping up with myself". We ran and walked side by side for another mile and then he too moved on ahead.

I got a lift at mile 8 because I never saw the number 7 on the road. Each mile was marked in green  chalk on the street in rather large numbers. Not sure how I missed it but it was nice to go from thinking I had 3 miles left to only having 2. :)

So today's lesson is DO MORE HILL WORK. Not that I didn't already know that deep down. I was pleased with my finish and pleased that I felt comfortable most of the time.

My schedule had 11 on it for today. I am happy with the 10 however and it's likely i'll do more than the planned 5 with the trail gang tomorrow so I'll still manage my mileage for the week. 21 down 6 to go.

7 miles on a weeknight

I am determined to keep with this new plan. Part of that plan is to presrve my weekly mileage. Wednesday night it rained buckets and then some. It was also very cold. If it's going to be cold and precipitate it should snow (but that's a rant for another time). Needless to say I bagged Wednesday  night's run.

I really wanted to make up those miles. A group was meeting at Oaks last night to run the Audobon Loop (4 miles). I was not excited about doing 4 with them and then 3 more. Fortunately it occurred to me (smack in the head occurred to me) that I could run 3 BEFORE the rest). And I did just that.

I'm not sure what was wrong with me last night. My comfort level for both sets was a 12 minute pace and recently I've been doing much better than that. It's ok that it was that way but I just wish I knew why. The only thng I can think of is that I did not sleep very well the night before. And now that I think some more my nutrition was not all that great on Thurday either. It could be something as simple as that.

Regardless, I managed 7 miles on a weeknight and including the travel time home and a 30 minute break between the first 3 and the last 4 (waiting for the gang to show up) I was finished before 7:30. This is good to know. There will be no excuses later when my mileage increases and I may need to do 7 on a weeknight to keep up.

Happy Friday :)