cheryl

It was back to the Rec Center track.  I feel sorry for anyone who ran outside today, that wind seemed pretty brutal.  I guess it makes you tough, though (do you notice how tough and though are spelled almost the same but pronounced very differently, no wonder people say English is a difficult language)  Anyway, I digress.  I ran 4 miles, and I did notice my times, but then my watch didn't work right, so I'm going from memory.  I think my splits were:  8:47, 8:11, 7:47 and 8:00.  I'm still working on a new technique my chiro has helped me with, it does seem to make running a little easier and much less painful--takes a lot of the stress off the hamstrings.  So I'm happy about that.  I also did a little stair master, can't resist that machine.

All I know is I'm thankful for my running group, because the chance that I would have gotten out there today and run in the windy, cold, snowy, windy, windy conditions without them was zero.  No, let me rephrase that, less than zero.  We met at Daybreak.  I had scouted out the area yesterday, during daylight hours, to see good places to run.  Today, when it was dark and snowy and did I mention windy, I couldn't get my bearings as well so we didn't quite run the workout I had planned, but I think we got in a good run nonetheless.  We ran up by the temple, did a couple of half mile repeats, then back down and did hill repeats.  Part of the run when we were running into the wind reminded me a little of St. George last year.  I run with the toughest group of people, nothing stops them from running.  I admire every one of them.

Having a child off track puts a crimp in my working out.  If I was only disciplined enough to get up and running by 6:00, it would be ok.  However, I am only disciplined on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Anyway, I took my son to the canal road about 11:30, when it was fairly warm, and we walked/ran there for about 30 minutes.  It was fun to be out with him, and he got some exercise along with me.  Then later this evening I went to the Rec Center and ran a little more.  Still working on better running form.  Maybe one of these days I'll get it.

I walked/ran to Bingham this morning to warm-up for the big group run.  Met the group at 5:45, and we ran over to Temple View to warm-up some more.  Then we broke up into two groups, the group being chased and the group doing the chasing, and ran about a 3.5 mile run.  I was in the group being chased.  I like doing things like that because I think it gets us running harder than we would otherwise.  I ran the entire way with Nancy Russell.  Nancy, if you're reading this, it was fun talking to you.  Sorry I couldn't talk more, I was in the "uncomfortably hard" stage most of the run.  I was mad at the end because my garmin malfuncationed (or maybe I malfunctioned) and I didn't get any info for the run.  I was curious of my average pace, but it's gone forever, so, oh well.  Rachel and Eric were ahead of us the entire way, then Scott came passing us about halfway thru Bonanza (about 1/2 mile from the end), then Peggy passed us maybe a quarter mile from the end, or maybe a little longer from the end, I don't know for sure.  Peggy was too nice to say it on her blog, but she (and Scott also) pretty much passed everyone (maybe not Rachel and Eric).  But nobody else got us, we were glad for that.  I felt pretty sick at the end for a minute or two (thanks everyone, you know it's a good run when you feel sick at the end), then we regrouped to run one of our standard two mile loops.  I was pretty wasted, and my garmin malfunctioned again, so I didn't really get a lot of info on this run either.  I think it took about 18 minutes.  I know the last mile I averaged 8:51 (the garmin finally worked right).   Kris, Debbie and I then ran back to the high school, and Kris said we got in 7 miles (her garmin worked ok).  It was fun, I feel pretty tired right now.

My "eclectic" day again--a little of this, a little of that.  I read in the latest Runner's World that walking backwards has benefits, so I tried that on my treadmill.  That takes a lot of concentration and I fell off a couple of times.  I then walked forwards a little, then ran a little.  Then later I went to the Rec Center and did 15 minutes on the stair master, then ran a few laps on the track.  A nice workout day.

This was one of those running days that if they were all like this, I would become an ex-runner really fast.  I've been doing a lot of running on the indoor track at the So. Jordan Rec Center, working on my running form, trying to be less tight, more loose, so to speak.  The track is easy because you don't have to deal with any of the elements.  So today I decided to take my training outdoors, and to run on the canal road and work on form.  Well, lucky for me, my worst nemesis was out today, that being the wind.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind?  Things were bad from the start.  I felt tight, lacked energy, lacked just about everything necessary to have a good run.  I forced myself to keep running non-stop for 30 minutes, and pretty much hated every one of them.  I know 30 minutes doesn't sound like much when I've noticed many in the group ran really long Saturday, but for me to keep at it the full 30 minutes was a kind of triumph.  My brain was yelling for me to stop the entire time.   Anyway, I will regroup and try again another time--and hope for no wind next time.