Another week has passed and training is going well. All of our long runs are now in excess of half marathon distance. Last Saturday we were at Queeny Park, a beautiful run through meadow and woods. We started our first 4 mile loop with the sun coming up through hazy clouds and mist, pretty enough to stop to take a picture then catch up with the group. The night before the run we had thunderstorms and we were all hoping that the heat would be broken or even better that we could run in the rain. Alas, no such luck, it was hot and humid. That in combination with the hills made for a challenging run. We did a good job controlling the pace conserving energy for the full 14 miles.
After a rest day sunday, I was scheduled to run 8 miles on Monday. As I approached the turning point I decided to go out an extra mile, adding 2 to the run. The workout on Saturday combined with cooler temps (sub-90) made for a great run averaging 9:20 per mile. Now all Ineed is to be able to do that 2-1/2 times in a row AND trim 20 seconds per mile AND do that on a race day and I will meet my qualification goal.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I did a hill repeat workout. I found a hill that is 2/10 of a mile long, has an overall grade of 9% but the top 1/3 is over 15% :((. My goal was to run the hill 6 times and that was tough. After the 6th time, to build mental toughness I went back down and came up a 7th time, at the top I thought I would walk/stagger/jog the mile back home. However, when it came time to turn left, I turned right adding 3 miles to the total. Those first few steps running away from the house were challenging but soon I was back in the groove and felt great. Total was 5 miles at an average pace of 10:20 including the hill mileage. I could not have felt better (mentally) after the run!!!
Until next week,
RunGrampyRun
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