Run Girl Run: more ups and downs in jersey

ah...another weekend in the country. it's nice out here.

like in the city, the air was a bit thick when we arrived friday night, but luckily for me we had a good thunder/rainstorm that night so by the time i got up saturday morning to go pick up the car (we rent a car on the weekends when we're out here) and get ready to run it was way cooler and less humid.

i got a bit of a late start, so by the time i got back from getting the car it was already past 10. i wasn't that worried because it wasn't supposed to get too warm today but...sun beating down is sun beating down, so i got ready and on the road as quickly as could.

my plan was to modify the route i took last week - i would run to the gas station as i did before, "re-fuel" then instead of turning back the way i came, continue up the hill and around in a bit of a circle to link up with the way home. new scenery in the middle would also be a good distraction since i still haven't managed to find my little ipod.

starting out, my legs felt so heavy. its so frustrating/annoying that one day you run and you feel pretty light and speedy, and another day you feel like you're legs have weights attached and you're running through soup. i decided not to let it get to me - these runs are not about speed, they're about covering distance at an easy pace so, given my tendencies lately to go a bit too fast, it probably wasn't a bad thing to have a little handicap, if you will.

aside from another poor dead dear on the road (this one was so vile that i had to switch sides of the street) my run to the gas station was uneventful. weather - good. legs - okay. hydration - good. i felt like i was drinking more water than in weeks past but i think in this weather it would be very hard to over-hydrate. i hit up the gas station and headed up the hill, wistfully looking at the flat turn off while i continued to go up.

once i was at the top, the next bit was relatively flat. i like little ups and downs, other wise its painfully boring - ala ocean parkway to coney island. once i was past the suburban homes, it was nice little stretch through some pretty woods, which looked like good stomping ground. in here i had a huge downhill, and you might think that might be a good break. it was (now that i can look at the topography map - see lovely map at the end of the post) at least 1/2 mile long, and started to get to me. hills down are not a challenge cardio-wise, but they are very hard on the joints and muscles so it actually takes a lot of work to make sure you're not just pounding down the hill, but running a bit lightly...well as lightly as you can.

i had my snack of a double latte power gel...turned back on to some more "suburban" sorts of roads and wound my way up and down some more hills, and pretty quickly i was back on the route that i knew and there was the biiiiiiiig hill, become bigger because of where i started on it. i made it up the hill but rather slowly, and admittedly - swearing at it the whole way up.

when i got to the top though, i still had a lot of energy, so i picked up the pace a little bit through the last two miles or so, and it was fun. when i finished is definitely a bit sore...but all in all a successful run. at first when i got back i felt like it was a little slow - but when I considered all the hills, i'll take it.