What happened? LOL, I made it blue! And BIG.
I went out and tackled some demons this weekend. I brought my running clothes so I could run right after my WW meeting without going home, mostly for the change of scenery, but ALSO because it meant that I could re-run most of last week's course. I was just going to do a little out-and-back that had some of the little rolling hills from the course, but I got out there and realized I could make it a big loop and cover all of the tough parts in the 10 I was planning to run today.
I wasn't running at race pace or trying to race anything, but what I wanted to do was replace my memories of being out there at certain parts of the race course with the memory of having a nice, easy, good feeling run. And it worked. I noticed some really nice flowers and things that I never noticed on race day. And the hills that looked like mountains were barely a blip. The mile-long hill slowed my easy pace down by 30 sec. for that mile today, but never felt bad. And the cherry blossoms at the top didn't seem as impossibly far away as they had during the race. I did NOT get to run by the spot where my friend went down, but honestly I'm not sure exactly where that was since I wasn't paying attention to landmarks and it's on the really straight and boring part towards the end. So I don't think that part of the course has any demons to slay, since I didn't even know where I was anyway.
Baconista- I like doubles myself as a way to pad the miles with a crazy schedule. And I do feel like it has less impact on the body than running longer, so for me it can be an easy way to pad mileage if that's what I'm looking to do. As far as training impact, I think it's mostly recommended for "advanced" runners mostly because until you get into a certain mileage, you could probably get more training effect from running longer runs or more days. So the trainers aren't going to recommend doubles when something else would be more effective from a purely physiological point of view.
On the HM trainers board, somebody summed it up this way:
Running longer runs > doubles > running fewer miles > not running at all.
So that's not really the same as not being "advanced enough" for doubles or whatever. In fact, I plan to run a few in the upcoming weeks since I'll be running with the track club and maybe a little bit with the Girls on the Run team in the mornings, but I'm certainly not going to skip my evening run!
SF- Way to get us started with a bang!
LRB- Hiya!
D- Glad you're getting to run outside. Hope it goes well.
Lauren- Good news, glad the achy bits are cooperating.
Mitch- Nice LR! The legs were probably just happy to hear that they didn't need to race this weekend, a LR seemed easy by comparison.
Jack- Congrats to you and DW for your LRs. Good luck on the errands.
Jerry- Hope you have a good Easter weekend too, and that the cortisone works its magic! I am not going to St. Louis with the team, although hopefully I can stream their matches, depending upon work. In fact, DD is going to have to fly back early because she has a mandatory overnight for the Costa Rica trip next weekend. So she will get to fly (and make a connecting flight) by herself for the first time. I think it will be good for her because she honestly doesn't push to get to do a lot of stuff independently, so having a reason to go outside her comfort zone will be good.
Cherie- If you keep winning all of these OA and AG awards you know we're going to stop believing you about "oh, it was a small race, no big deal." Isn't this at least your second in a row coming home with hardware? Nice job!
Ginny- Wow, congratulations! I'm sorry that I let the date of that one sneak up on me, but I am happy for you to have completed it! For some reason I thought you were still a few weeks out.
Margo- Love it when the pace just feels easy!
Penguin Power!
6 miles with the hubby went well. There are lots of runners out and people outside in general which was nice to see. My husband is certainly way faster than I am and it was way hotter than expected, but I survived. I got a later start than I expected because I forgot to take my allergy medicine this morning and had to wait a bit for it to kick in. All of the trees are in bloom in NYC which is a very pretty sight, but very bad for my allergies.
Great job with all of the running this weekend every one. I'm especially impressed by the 18 miles Jack's wife did. Maybe I'll get there some day. I find after about 8 or 9 I start feeling a bit more joint pain than I should (maybe my form deteriorates over time)
Zel - is this the FIRST robotics competition by any chance? I was the robotics mentor at the first school I taught at.
Ginny - congrats on the first HM. 2:08x is great -- sub 10:00 pace :-)
Upcoming Races: Run as One 4M (4/24) * Japan Run 4M (5/8) * Brooklyn Half (5/21)
sapf- Yes, that's the one! That's awesome that you've been a mentor before. What do you teach, by the way? I teach bilingual (Spanish-English) reading at an elementary school, and I know that I'm not the only teacher on here. Nice run today! The nice thing about long runs is that adding "one more mile" to the furthest distance you've run doesn't really add that much more, percentage-wise, once you're already getting up there in the miles. So going from 10 - 12 miles is the same increase as going from 5 - 6, for example.
Great job, Cherie!
9.08 miles with hubby.
Damaris
As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.
Fundraising Page
My license area is high school chemistry. I've taught: health, environmental science, chemistry, 9th grade physical science, and computer programming. I got a bit burned out after 4 years of inner city school teaching, so I no longer teach full time. Now I do private tutoring and volunteering. When DH and I move away from NYC I'll likely go back to teaching full time - though hearing all of my friends complain about common core changes makes me a bit intimidated.