Another catch-up entry, due to the craziness surrounding the Blueberry Festival. I'm physically exhausted, but I'm still on track with my training!

August 5

Medium run, 6 miles, 1:06:15; splits 9:58, 12:09, 10:41, 9:41, 11:33, 12:12.

I was sleepy and don't remember much except that it was humid. I actually forgot that I had given blood on Tuesday; the first uphill was harder than usual now that I think back on it, but it wasn't until mile 5 or so (also a hill) that I noticed my fatigue & remembered. Blood donation has really done a number on my running in the past, but I think that's because during the week I used to do much shorter & therefore faster runs. Running slowly/downhill must not require more oxygen than my depleted red blood cells could carry. It's also true that I had a particularly easy time (for me--I usually get woozy if I don't take an extra 10 minutes on the table). I still hope to be sending the message "Make more!" to my bone marrow.

One of the hardest runs I ever did was the Chris Thater 5K route (to familiarize myself with it), which is pretty flat. It was a hot evening after work, I was really pushing, and I had just given blood the day before.

August 6

Short run, 4 miles, 43:24; splits 11:09, 10:24, 10:29, 11:22.

An evening run, since the Blueberry Festival started early in the morning. Pretty tired, but a lovely evening. I stopped & spoke to our neighbor up the hill with the lovely garden, and petted her beautiful Irish setter. It was my normal 4 mile run but I ran it the opposite way to see how much my previous negative splits were due to where the hills are. Yep, that's why!

August 8

Long run, 12 miles, 2:24:14; splits 10:24, 11:09, 13:12, 13:05, 10:45, 11:13, 12:16, 11:29, 12:04, 12:13, 12:08, 14:17.
WEEK 7; miles for the week, 26 (4/6/4/12).
No heart rate data because I lent the watch to the Festival kids' games and forgot to ask for it back Saturday!
Weight 118.

An adventure run! I took a road I've never been on before, even in a car. I did think of driving it last week just to make sure I knew of any turns, but I'm glad I didn't. It turns from a road into a track pretty quickly and it would not be kind to a regular car. Wow, what a gorgeous route. Once past the few houses at the beginning of the dirt road, you're in untouched woods and natural clearings. No traces of human life aside from the road itself and a few Posted signs--no fences, utility poles, agriculture, or anything. Then you come out into fields at the top of a hill with spectacular views. When I came out onto the two-lane highway to head back towards home, I could see the radio tower at the top of the hill we see from our front door, and it looked really far away!

I love love love living here. Even though I grew up in Manhattan, I've always wanted to live in the country. As a kid I spent time in North Carolina and in the south of France, but neither of those environments (although I enjoyed exploring them) felt like home. This kind of landscape feels like where I belong. I am so incredibly lucky to be able to head out my driveway and go 5 miles or 10 miles "around the block" in this kind of idyllic scenery, with hardly any traffic and tons of wildlife. I love the solitude. This isn't getting me ready for the marathon, so the crowds will be extra-distracting (I noticed in Montreal how hard it was for me to stick to my own rhythm when others are running near me), but again I am so lucky to be able to run all by myself for hours. A number of women over the years have mentioned to me how they are afraid of being alone in rural areas; one friend specifically mentioned that she hears the music from Deliverance when she's walking on a country road by herself. That's so alien to me, I think because I grew up in the city when crime was at its peak and learned how to walk by myself & feel relatively safe (part of that IMO is just the attitude you project). It's people who are scary, because they are the only creatures who can be malicious, and they are just so few & far between out here that the chance of running across one of the tiny percentage who are actually bad is infinitesimal. And they're all in vehicles which you can hear coming from very far away. My dear aunt used to express concern about someone being able to "sneak up" on me when I was out at our land by myself (before we moved here). People just can't sneak up on you in the country! Anyway, none of this is to say I feel invicible or anything--bad things can happen anywhere--but I do feel relaxed and secure in my solitary running.

Speaking of wildlife, I saw a red squirrel and a doe and fawn. At one of the very few houses on the dirt road section, a HUGE flock of turkeys poured out of the long grass under some locust trees. There were about 5 or 6 adults and maybe 50 youngsters, old enough to fly but still not looking much like turkeys. They buzzed out of the grass in batches; I would think that must be all and another group would take off. Back on 858 (two lane highway), there was a half-grown opossum at the side of the road. I wasn't sure if it was sick or injured; I chivvied it off the road with a stick and didn't notice anything obviously wrong, but there wasn't much I could do. Lots of grasses/sedges/rushes along 858; eventually I hope I'll learn those too. Wildflowers: teasel, turtlehead, tearthumb, wild mint, water horehound, virgin's bower, bittersweet nightshade, purple asters, a different white aster (asters and goldenrods I also hope to learn better some day; there are so many different kinds!)

The end of this route was running up the "continental divide" hill, which goes 425+ feet up over 1 mile. That was probably the hardest running I've ever done. The only thing that got me up without stopping was repeating "ma-ra-thon-er" in time with my steps/breathing. That took focus and concentration (the emphasis for this week in NRMT!) for the entire 15 minutes or so. I did it!

Another ice bath, shudder. I'm going to try skipping it next week to see if it really makes a difference. Even if it does, I think I'll just do cold water. I wish I had a lake or pond to swim in, that would be much more pleasant.

Today (August 10th)

Short run, 4 miles, 42:57; splits 10:55, 11:17, 10:47, 9:58.

Hard, tiring run (although my best time yet on this route!) We had to move 398 boxes of books yesterday, after all the heavy lifting Friday and Saturday, so I think cumulative exhaustion is the culprit. Hazy and humid but not too too hot.


- posted by Hilary @ 10:41 PM