Hills are only sometimes fun....

It's been over 8 months since I have run a 14 miler - boy did I make it tough on myself. If I had just ran the straight route - it would have been challenging, but not so darn painful. I ran over 5 miles of it in the NW hills of Portland... because I felt like "exploring." What the heck was I thinking?! Hills are only sometimes fun. Sure a 2 minute sprint - but 30 or 60 minutes of them are not. The houses were beautiful as this particular area is like the Beverly Hills of Portland. 2 bottles of water, a gatorade, a few sport jelly beans and a half of bagel later I finally hit my wall on mile 13. I literally had to walk...forced to walk. Thank goodness I bumped into the only friend I have here on my last mile and so the walk of pain was in short stride. Just letting her chat while walking her dog - definitely lifted my spirits. I think on future runs when I'm feeling depleted from a run that I'm going to call a friend and just let them talk to me. I really had to just laugh at myself. It's great though to tell people where you ran from and to and have them be really impressed. For me, I was happy to be back home in tact and in good spirits. The next day I was pleasantly surprised that my body is recovering better. Sure my hamstrings and quads were sore, but that was to be expected. My calves were really tight - but a good tight. I am happy I pushed myself seeing that I'll be running a 16 mile trail run on the race course this Saturday and I'm thinking that my last week exploration and hill repeats will start to pay off. I definitely need to incorporate more stretching - and get a massage at least once a month until the race. Today - I scheduled an easy 45 min. run - while tomorrow I'll have 6 mile trail run. Friday will be some core or yoga and Saturday will be a fun 4 hours! I've got 8 weeks and counting and am right on pace to have a great first 50K. My goal for that race is to finish and "walk the next day" to talk about it. That will be the payoff! FINISHING! Have a great day and thanks again for reading!

Keeping It Fresh

Definitely feeling the effects from the last 4 weeks of training. I'm just plain old tired. Not burnt out - just tired. Tomorrow I am running a 14-miler and I can only hope it goes smooth and pain free. My 5 miles of hills and stairs yesterday was fun - I'm glad that I was spontaneous and did those hill repeats seeing that the 50k will have a 3,100' elevation gain - so really hills now are going to be the bain of my existence. What is the classic term, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?" That's my new mantra. In fact, running up this one incline yesterday - which turned out to be a 2 minute uphill battle - was truly heart pounding. I actually grunted out loud at one point. My calves are definitely more sore today then the usual flat runs I do 10+ miles. Hills definitely works those muscles in your glutes and calves to help give you power. Definitely the last mile home on the flats felt really great and I was moving faster, so that was fun! One thing that I've been adding to my normal fluid repertoire is filling one of my flasks with Gatorade and that has helped to keep my energy higher and I think is helping in my recovery too.

Evidently, one of the purest and most direct tools in developing “running strength” can only be gained by hill training. I read this somewhere and it's stayed with me. So here I am - adding in on my mid-week runs, more and more hills! All in all - I'm looking forward to tomorrows long run (finding a few hills) and possibly scheduling a body massage or in the very least a really nice foot rub in the near future.

I realize that keeping my work outs fresh is just as important as changing up my diet, and creating new mixes on my iPhone. It all plays a part in psyching me out so that I don't get bored and every week feels new and challenging! So, keeping it fresh is definitely a priority for the coming 9 weeks. Keep me in your thoughts and thanks again for reading!