Objective: Moderate Weather: 40 F, light rain (another bad call from the weather service) 15 min. core and weights
I don't know why I put on my jacket this morning, since the prediction was for only a 10% chance of rain. Those first couple of miles I felt like a real idiot: I did it again, I was too hot. The jacket came off, and it immediately started to rain. >:( Once I was cool, I was also wet. But the jacket eventually came back on and I felt fairly comfortable. By the way, have I ever mentioned Snoqualmie's Excellent Jacket Tie Method? If you only partially unzip the jacket, take off the sleeves, then zip it up again as far as you can, you can tie the sleeves and roll the jacket down so that it is a more compact unit around your waist. Still kind of a pain, but not so floppy. I'm thinking over my "homework" that Sasha gave me a couple of days ago. First, I must get to a track. This is not so easy. I have ruled out weekdays, since 1) I do not wish to spend my running time driving and 2) I am too cautious to go to the school by myself in the pitch dark. It is not safe. I might think about inserting the time trial into my long run this weekend, in which case I would use the long trip to the school and back as my run. One of Sasha's questions to me has been on my mind: "what do you mean by "the speed just isn't there?'" The short answer is "I'm pathetically slow despite all my hard work." But since we were talking about mileage and aerobic base, I have been thinking about my mileage goals and wondering about what more miles can and cannot do for me. I would like to increase from my 55-60 range to a 65-70 range, but I think I need to get faster to achieve that, since I'm out of time. But here is the point. To run that 55-60 I am spending 9-11 hours on the road per week. If I were a faster runner, and my average pace for daily running was, say, 6:30 instead of 10:30, 9-11 hours at that pace would put me up near 100 miles per week. If my reasoning is correct, I am putting in decent time but "the speed just isn't there." It goes back to the bell curve concept that I discussed about a month ago. I'm on the high side for effort, but the low side for results. In spite my seemingly endless whining about all this, I do believe improvement is coming - albeit slowly. I am so fortunate to not be injury prone and to absolutely adore running. I know I need more intensity, but because of my age I have to take it in small doses to make sure I don't crash and burn. Sorry this post is so long, but I don't want to forget to mention an incredible story I heard about. Arien O'Connell ran the fastest time at the Nike Women's Marathon, but was denied "winner" status because she did not sign up in the "elite" category. (She was the only sub 3 runner.) Nike has since made her "a winner," but not "the winner." The two stories are here and here.
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