Middle-of-the-Pack Girl

Mountain Lake at Sunrise, by Brentbat, at flickr.com

I had a few “moments,” I guess you could say, this morning on my run. 

• My I-am-glad-to-be-alive moment = seeing the sunrise.  It’s amazing how much color it had considering how grey the rest of the day was. The sky was bright, almost blood-red at the bottom, bright pink like a young girl’s blush, and then bright purple like lilacs, on top.  Over the next few minutes, the colors gradually  faded a bit, but since I was running by Silver Lake, which is still frozen in parts, it was still beautiful.  I really wished I’d had a camera with me to show all of you how bright the hues were.  Even brighter than in this amazing photo, above.
• My WTF? moment = looking down and seeing my Garmin is not accurately reflecting distance. Time, yes. Distance, no.  It would say my “pace at the moment” is 9:06, yet my average mile pace was 12:14.  HM, me thinks there is something wrong with this picture, eh? (I am now thinking how that last sentence must read aloud – why the hell am I talking with an Irish accent?!)  Ok, I digress…
• My YAY moment = getting home, knowing that I covered 4.2 miles (I did an out-and-back run that I know equals that distance) in 38:48, and it was my “hilly” (it’s all relative) route!  Yay!!!!
• I went out there today thinking it’d be my easy run, and it came out to 9:14 average pace – yayyy!!!

Ok, on to an inspirational thought or two.  First, I’d like to say a big thank you to Jill at Jill Will Run, for suggesting the idea to write these posts. I like how they make me think of things, and I’ve learned a bit about myself while writing them.  I also hope that they’ve touched some of you out there in a good way too.

This morning when I was driving to work, I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations.  They were telling the story of this man, I believe his name was George Hanson.  Anyway, he works for Steinert Pianos in one of their locations in Massachusetts.  It sounds like his location is closing, after 136 years. He has been working there as a piano tuner and repairman for the last 61 YEARS.   The man is now 90 years old and he still wants to keep on working.

Can you imagine?  In a world where there is so much bad news every day, where you’re bombarded with it by the media every time you turn on my computer or TV, isn’t it great to know that there is someone out there who has such a great work ethic and attitude?  He says he just can’t sit still. He is hopeful Lowes or Home Depot will hire him!  I think most of us can only hope that we are in that good shape, both mentally and physically, when we get to that age.

Here’s another thought for you – the lady with whom I’m going to be writing that article.  Her  mom is 91.  She had a stroke a few months ago after having had surgery.  She is now living again on her own, and she’s fired her home health nurse because she didn’t feel like she needed one.  AND she goes to an exercise class!!!   I honestly think that a lot of molds were thrown out when they made folks from that generation of my grandmother’s.

Hope you all like the picture! Ok,  I REALLY have to finish my submission tonight for Runner’s Lounge!

 Another take on the word “track”

Photo by Janusz L, fllickr.com

I hope that title doesn’t offend anyone.  It’s just what my husband calls my Tuesday night track practices, is all, and he means it in a good way. I think he’s happy I’ve found other folks out there who love running as much as I do, enough to torture ourselves on a weekly basis.

A large number of folks had run a 10 mile race this past weekend, so they were given modified workouts.  I ended up only being able to run with Francine and another lady named Diane. Diane usually runs in a group much faster than us but she’s missed a few practices so she decided to stick with us.  Diane is one of the folks who prefers to stick to the paces on the card, so that was good for Francine and I, as we usually do also, as much as we can anyway.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe we only have two weeks left after last night.  I definitely feel like I’ve gotten much faster. Sometimes, the 41-42 second pace almost feels a bit easy to me, which is a great thing. 

• 39 second = 7:09 mile pace
• 4o seconds = 7:20 mile pace
• 41 seconds = 7:31 mile pace
• 42 seconds = 7:42 mile pace.

Here are the stats of last night’s workout – most included one lap walk/jog recovery in between:

• 6 laps 42 second pace
• 5 laps 42 second pace
• 4 laps 41-42 second pace
• 3 laps 41-42 second pace
• 2 laps 41 second pace
• 5 laps 41 second pace
• 4 laps 41 second pace
• 3 laps 39-40 second pace
• 2 laps 39-40 second pace
• 2 lap walk
• 5 laps of .5 pick up and .5 walk  – for this we tried to run as fast as possible – one of my 1/2 laps took only 14 seconds!

I hope we get to do another time trial by the time we are done – Francine mentioned that between the first week and a few weeks ago, she’d brought down her mile at max speed from 7:56 to 7:19.  I think when we first started, I might have been able to do a mile in 8 or 8:15, and only if you’d been chasing me with a loaded gun.

Also, Diane gave me quite the compliment last night – she said she thought I was built like a sprinter. No one has ever called me that before that I can remember. 🙂  She was also quizzing me about my long runs since I told her I’m doing a HM in May, and she was like “oh, you’ll be fine to do that with your base….”  Now I’ve just got to be able to hold onto the pace!

I am also happy to say that when I was pacing us, I was pretty dead on! Yay!

My inspirational post is coming – just not tonight probably as I’m working a longer day today than usual. (Or, as Bill was kidding me earlier, I am actually working a 10 hour day, the type of day MOST people work.)

Hey, that’s why it’s academia, and we DON’T get paid the big bucks…Plus, I need to get my Runner’s Lounge article submission done! Reminder everyone, they’re due this week!

HappyRunning everyone!