what's in store for the birthday you ask? hill repeats.

you know that long hill i always talk about? well...check out what's in store for today's (birthday!) practice:

"Today begins our first day of hill training. We'll become very familiar with the North Hill and the South Hill and maybe a few hills in the center of the park too...

Hill training builds strength! Yep, believe it or not we're going to need a little strength to get us from start to finish.

We'll warm up to the light pole near the bottom of the North Hill and then use the 1/2 mile mark as the end point.

Intermediate:
Technique Focus: Running Hills with proper form, efficiency, and strength!!!
Workout: Hill Repeats- 30-35 minutes. The effort UPHILL will alternate between the following;

1) Efficient, with good form and technique.

2) "Hard"- the SAME as you ran two weeks ago for the 200 and 400 meter repeats, remember? Your primary focus is on maintaining short strides and a LOW arm swing in order to minimize the impact forces.

The RECOVERY is downhill and is VERY SLOW.

Cool Down: Easy run back to picnic Area."

i'm definitely going to need lots of cake to recover from this workout.

on the road again

i was very well behaved and followed my coach's suggestion of laying off the running until today's long run. it wasn't easy - the weather was lovely for running, i took a few days off work to spend time with my boyfriend and his family so i had some time, and you know how it is when you want to do something simply because you're not supposed to.

we also came out to new jersey yesterday, and the roads around here are hilly hilly hilly. the schedule called for a 7-9 mile run, and because of my testy hip and the hills, i decided i'd plot a course for the lower end of that range, trying to be wise. i used the trusty gmap-pedometer.com to figure out a down and back course that would provide a little convenience store in the middle to refill my fuel belt, and figured i'd go just 7 miles.

i stayed up a little late, and so was a little late getting out of the house - i probably didn't leave until about 10 or so. it was almost 70 degrees, but really wonderfully breezy. part of the route i was running, i had run before and it had been *hard*, but that was early early on, and i was feeling optimistic.

my run took me up and down many hills. i started to count, but then was focused on actually running said hills and lost track. i made sure not to run too fast, and i took it easy on both the uphills and the downhills - the downhills tend to be harder on my joints than the ups. while it was really hilly, it was certainly not monotonous...like running to coney island is.

i made it to the 1/2 point without any incident other than having to avoid a dead bambi on the side of the road (ick), got some gatorade and headed back up and down the way i came. i had a great run overall - as i crested a hill, and the ground leveled, i noticed i was positively cruising along - probably a little too fast - but it felt great. i've realized it takes a few miles for me to really warm up, and i start feeling my best after 4 miles or so.

i was feeling good enough that i tacked on a little extra run to the end of the road and back for a total of 7.7 miles, which was probably the effort of even more miles because of the hills. Not to mention, this run brings me to over 100 miles trained so far, which is pretty good if you ask me.

here you can see the route and the elevation which is quite the rollercoaster.



i'll try to do another 4 or so tomorrow because its likely i won't be running much on monday because we'll bus it back to the city early in the morning.

oh! and if you haven't seen we've also crossed the $1,000 mark in fundraising - yeeeeah!

today's mileage: 7.7
time run: not sure...i will buy new watch this weekend, i swear!
season mileage to date: 106.1

the running gods giveth...

and they taketh away.

if saturday was my most fun, enjoyable run, tonight's was definitely the polar opposite of that.

today's assignment was to run 3 miles "comfortably hard". not a sprint, because obviously that is not going to happen. this is a test of sorts. we all recorded our time, and in the next few weeks we'll have lovely hill training, then we'll do the test again. the point is to show how much we've improved over those 6ish weeks of hill-torture, uh i mean training.

the first stupid thing i did was have salad for lunch. no fuel in there! the second stupid thing i did was not have a carby-snack. duh! and finally, i had my achy hip to deal with, which tended to get cranky when encountering lots of pounding.

we warmed up by heading to the bottom of the big hill in the park where we would start the race...by running back up that damn hill. i usually end my runs on that thing, and given that we were running hard, i predicted starting by going up that hill would most certainly be difficult.

and it was. i thought i was going moderately fast, but no...it was too fast. when i finished the hill, i could feel my hip pain settling in for a good visit, i was winded as hell and i developed a side stitch under the right set of my ribs towards my back. uuuug. i'll swallow my pride and say that i pretty much felt terrible and still had 2 miles to go.

because my hip was hurting, i didn't push to much, but i didn't want to completely throw the test and have my suffering be in vain so i just tried to be smart. i didn't pound down the hills too fast. i tried to use my arms to keep going. generally, i just looked at the ground a little ahead of where i was going so i wouldn't run into anything but also so that i wasn't totally conscious over how far i had to go.

we completed our run and my time was 30:28. i know i could be faster if my hip hadn't been acting up...and i shouldn't have gone so fast up the hill. i was very grumbly as we waited for the rest of the team to finish up and then took a nice easy cool-down run back to our meeting spot at the entrance of the park. even getting up there my hip was wincy, and i decided it was time to ask coach jim what he thought.

i told him my theory that my suffering was my IT band, he said it could be a number of things, suggesting a few stretches, icing, and some PT. we decided i would take a little running break until saturday and see how it was then. if it wasn't any better, he suggested seeing a sports doctor just to make sure there's nothing really wrong.

so...yeah. i've got plenty of time to train so i'm not freaking out yet, but this week will be mostly cross-training until we see if things are indeed, a.o.k.

on a brighter note - fundraising began last night and in one day i've already raised over $700 bucks. still a bit to go to $10k, but its a very solid start. and of course, with those donations, comes the priceless kinda support from my friends in the form of encouragement and kind words. so i'm going to focus on that tonight, and think positive about my little hip. i think it's all going to turn out okay.

today's mileage: 5.9
time run: n/a
season mileage to date: 98.4

the return of the IT-band-hip-pain

i hit the road earlier than usual, wanting to do a full loop.

it was another lovely morning...although the park was not so lovely. trash was littered everywhere, and eye-sore of a reminder of saturday's celebrations. i mean, is it seriously that hard to put your litter in a trash can? sad sad sad. but, i digress.

i was feeling strong and speedy coming off saturday's 9 miles, until, i reached the top of the big hill. suddenly i felt a sharp pain that started in my hip and shot down my leg a bit, causing me to catch my breath. it immediately dulled, but the deep IT band pain that i am familiar with lingered - so much so that i could feel my right leg tiring a bit as the rest of my leg compensated for the aching.

i slowed to a more moderate pace but did not stop, the pain not being too bad, and trotted back to the house. the sharp-pain part was scary, but its subsided now, and i'm going to ice it up and see how i'm feeling tomorrow before practice. tomorrow will be a "test" of sorts - each season we bookend the "hills" section of training so we can see how strong it makes us, and tomorrow is the day so i definitely don't want to miss it!

today's mileage: 4.3
time run: 45m
season mileage to date: 92.5

i am a runner

today's run was amazing.

it was another great morning. sunny with a cooling breeze. i left the house by 8:40 and headed to the park where my teammates would have already started running.

i found my rhythm early, and pleasantly glided through the busy park. it was a buzz with 4th of july activity, families with picnic gear and children in tow, claiming their patch of green to lay about for the day.

i wished i had a tape recorder to catch the cacophony of people and music.

i ran an extended loop (adding on a central drive + wellhouse mini loop), and then a full. at some point between 6 & 7 miles, which is where i lost a bit of steam last week, i was still going strong and feeling really good...and i thought to myself...

i am a runner.

i don't always feel this way, especially when so many runs early in the season are a struggle for me. but yesterday's run was a pleasant reminder that yes. slow as i go, laborious as it can be,

i am a runner.

i finished my 9+ strong, knowing a could have run at least another mile. and that felt fantastic.

happy 4th of july everyone.

today's mileage: 9.3
time run: 1h 40m (approximate)
season mileage to date: 88.2