What the....Fun Run!?

So, our Seawheeze training schedule on Wednesday alternates between sprint drills and hill drills and today was hills (which I prefer to sprints…I can probably chug slowly up a hill forever if I had to, but I can’t sprint worth a damn).

The last 2 months of hill training have been “jog up hill for 90 seconds, then jog slowly back down and run easy recovery and then repeat until 50 minutes is up”, with the easy recovery time getting shorter and shorter as the weeks went by (ie, the first week you only did the hill 3 times and then had lovely 10 minute recoveries, and the last one was run up the hill 8 times so your recoveries were only 3 minutes). You know, the gradual buildup to hills that are a staple in half marathon training.

This morning was different though.
 
The drill call for the same 8 hills, but instead of easy recovery jog back down and then around the block, you then SPRINTED BACK DOWN THE HILL and then repeated…so the “recovery” was actually at a high speed.

 

So what ended up happening was a jog up the hill and then a sprint back down gleefully waving my arms and shouting WHEEEEEEEEE with a vague feeling of terror that I would trip at such breakneck speed. Which was EXHAUSTING because we never really got a proper recovery, but was probably my favorite drill work EVER, because the running down the hill was SO fun…it was like when running down hills as a little kid was the funnest thing ever and running was for the fun of it before I grow up and it became all hard and horrible because I am out of shape and my joints are getting old. And while it was exhausting because there was no recovery time (and to tell the truth, at the end the jogs back up were slower and slower and had more walking than usual), the sprints down the hill were exhilarating and meant that instead of 50 minutes of varying levels of horrible, I got 8 minutes of pure unadulterated joy in the mix. I actually couldn’t stop the WHEEEEEEEEEEE from escaping, and I’m sure anyone driving towards me would have wondered how someone could run with such a smile on their face.

Anyway, now my legs hurt in all kinds of crazy new places and I am struggling to stay awake. So I will assume that means it was effective training and Friday's long run will be a breeze!

PS… I promised I would post about the 2 Toronto runs I did last month and I haven’t forgotten…I even have fun pictures! They will be up by this weekend!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!

OK, I was out of town last week so I didn't get this live, but I can imagine the shrieking of my teammates was pretty epic???

Acceptance never felt so sweet!!!

Not sure if I can stress how exciting this is, this race is extremely popular, so popular they have to do a random draw from the 30K+ applicants they get for the 7000 or so spots available.  I have tried 4 times already, so I was starting to lose hope that I would EVER get in. And I had tried as a single and as a group, so I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, we are IN and there are 5 of us on team Pardon my Fartlek (AHAHAHAA, I love run jokes) so we will have 5 lovely ladies running the hills of San Fran in October!

Bring on the Tiffany necklace, Mr Fireman!!!

NWT = A OK!

Week 3 is now underway, and I’m very proud to report that we are all still on track with the training program!  We have done sprints, hills, maintenance runs and everything, but the one struggle I am finding is trying to schedule my long runs. The schedule says to do them on Saturday, but I find I almost never have the time to do them Saturdays and end up switching them for Sunday instead. This makes Sunday a great day of Run. Laundry. Nap. Eat Everything. I’m still DOING them, don’t you worry, but I find that with summer around the corner my weekends are filling up and I am having to plan well ahead of time to get in the vital loooooooong runs to build up the stamina for race day.

 

For example, last weekend I was in Yellowknife because it was the week before the equinox.  The last 2 times I was in the Territories were in the winter and the sun came up for an hour a day and it was colder than all heck so I wanted to see what it was like at the other end of the spectrum so off we went.

For the record, it is MUCH nicer there in June than in February. And it is darn right UNSETTLING to have the sun still shining at midnight. But we drank $14 bottles of beer, ate some (unexpectedly) delicious food and I got in both the scheduled weekend runs. And I’m happy to report that while I was a poky little puppy for both the short run and the long, the scenery was great, the temperature was just about perfect, I didn’t get too many bug bites and I didn’t get lost.

 

See how pretty?!  The view, not the sweaty rumpled princess. FYI, 2 minutes
 after this I took a "nature break" in those trees....and got caught by a local out walking their dog.

The only downside was that I was expecting it to be easy breathing since I was 3000 feet closer to sea level than usual, but I ended up gasping along and walking more than I wanted to. Am pretty lazy when I'm by myself. Plus I was one Sweaty Betty, I didn’t realize how humid it was there! I also forgot to bring some carb chews, so I had to eat a granola bar at the halfway mark…tasty but not the best feeling to be choking down sawdust halfway through a 14K run. Will have to remember to pack some for the next few weekends when I am away.

The NWT Legislature! Sadly closed on Sundays or I could have used
 their bathrooms. I mean, taken a tour and learned about the government process.

 

Tomorrow is our first Official Trio Seawheeze Training Run, and it will be 50 minutes of Fartlek training. Which pretty much guarantees I will be struggling for breath for 49 minutes as I laugh childishly.

The Hills are Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive......

...with the sound of gasping for breath....yep, today was our first hill training in the Tacklebox, and while I was dreading it for the last few days, hills this morning was actually not bad at all! I met Linz at 525 this morning and after a 5 minute warmup, we ran up the hill at 10th Street for 5 X 90 second intervals with recovery jogs between them. Sure, it sucked to be up that early, but it means we are still sticking to the program and getting it done! Plus then I spent most of the day shadow boxing Rocky-style, totally proud of how awesome I felt!

Couldn't have been a better day for feeling awesome about hills either...the random draw for the Nike Woman's Half Marathon in San Fran opened this week! I entered the draw for the fifth time in a row, fingers crossed that this time I get in! Yes, San Fran would be a scary hilly course, but this is the one where finishers get a specially designed Tiffany necklace instead of a medal. FROM A FIREMAN! If that doesn't motivate a girl to want to run up 21K of hills, I don't know what will!



Brave AND bearing gifts in blue boxes, it doesn't get much better!

 This weekend is a 13K run and some more yoga....then next week we find out if that we got into San Fran, which will certainly motivate us on the hills!

Week One

We are four days in and feeling great! After a solid week of rain in YYC, we've had gorgeous blue skies and warmer weather, which means it's been pretty easy to get up early and knock out the day's running schedule. Even if the schedule is for a 50 minute run with 6 intervals of one minute sprints. That made for 360 seconds of me muttering words my father doesn't know I know followed by a day of SUPER sore legs.  But we are all feeling great for sticking with it and I'm sure I'll have a good sleep tonight! Plus tomorrow is the best day of the week...REST DAY! That's right...no run, no cardio, no crosstrain, just give my tired legs a day to rest and repair and get ready for this weekend's long run...but frankly 11K actually sounds better than those repeats from this morning.

Also...you know those days when you drag your sad tired fat carcass out of bed early the week after vacation and blearily dress and head out for a run, cursing the day you ever registered for a race involving the hateful activity that gobbles up so much of your TV watching time? Well, sometimes you get a reward so awesome that even 2 days afterward it makes the smile stay on your face?  Well, this is what temporarily halted our run on Tuesday morning....

How goose-stepping got its name!

Pretty much the cutest interruption ever, the morning skies rang with our shrieks of delight! So even though it was a rough start, it reminded me just how much I like getting up and running first thing in the morning.