Monday Heat

I joined a women's beginner group run this morning with the squad. It will be my first and last run with the group...not because it was terrible, but because I start full-time work next week (siiigh) and my fantastic Mondays off will soon be a distant memory.
It started at 9am, which was weird to sleep in. And it was HOT today! Oof, was it hot! After months of running in bitter cold, today was a shock to the system.
We ran a 7.5k loop with intervals of about 1km. After a weekend of eating yummy cookies, I wasn't at my fastest or my best. But I had the bizarre sensation of being the fastest in the group. I've been one of the faster ones before (on the rare occasion) but never the fastest. I'm not really sure I like it. I'm always more motivated when I'm trying to catch up with that person who's just a little bit faster than me.

Rest & Rain

No, I haven't been lacking Internet time to write about my running...I've been lacking running events to write about! That's right, I took the week off running to try to heal my sore ITB. It helped a bit, but not entirely.
This morning I got up to rain. I can count the number of times I've started running in the rain on one hand with fingers to spare. But after a week off, I was anxious to get going! And really, it was barely raining out. Baby steps of improvement! Next thing you know I'll be one of those hard core people who goes out rain or shine, hail or thunder. Ha! Not likely to happen anytime soon.
Back to the run!
It was a 20k loop and I discovered that I was the only person thinking of doing less. But then another guy on the so-called "injury watchlist" said he would be doing about 12-14k so we agreed we'd go back together.
The first part was really hilly and I struggled to keep up. Hills are not my friend. Then at the 5k mark the ground flattened and for some reason my fellow long-slow-distancers decided to take off. I was later informed the pace hovered just over 5min/km which is faster than my fastest. Needless to say, I started dropping back. But fear of getting lost in the new area pushed me that little bit harder. The group thankfully stopped for a water break at the 8k mark. I was feeling good, feeling strong. When my fellow injured runner told me he was heading back, I was a bit crushed.
I mean, new route, I was going hard, feeling fine...I so desperately wanted to keep going!
With great reluctance I ran back with him and it was like someone had pulled the plug on my energy store. I was shattered! We ran a slow 6.15min/km pace (did I mention I love people who have those fancy Garmin watches that measure your pace? One day I will get one and feel so hi-tech!) which was all I could do. Back up through the hills (unh!) to our start and up for some chill time in the cafe. Total time: 1.42.54. But I kept my watch going up some of those hills when I had to walk. Lazy, I know.
On the plus side, my ITB wasn't so bad in the end. And we had the greatest conversation about mountaineering on our slow jog back to the carpark. Still, when I saw all my fellow squad members arriving back from the 20k a short time later, I was rather sad that I hadn't finished it with them.

Short Slow Distance

I woke up this morning with plans to run a 20k. I'd even skipped yesterday's run in favour of having a bit of a recovery before hitting this morning. (After all, running 4 days in a row is not always the smartest idea). But I got there and thought about this big group work out I'm doing with a friend this afternoon. Since this would likely be a "pre-fatigue" event to said workout, I thought I might cut it short and go to 16k or 18k. 16k isn't bad, right?
Nobody was doing a 16k. And really, if I wanted to run by myself I wouldn't be on a squad. So I found some people doing a 12k. Excellent! A bit shorter than I'd hoped, but when I suggested 14k they seemed open to the idea. 14k is decent.
...
And then I hit ~4.5k out and my ITB band started to act up again. The 5k mark is where we have our first "regrouping" at the drink station, so I stopped for some water and waited for one of my poor, injured friends to hobble along. We turned back and jogged slowly home, both of us lamenting over the frustrations of injury! My heart was in for the 20k (or at least a decent 14k) and I desperately wanted to be out running that distance but sometimes the body wins out over the mind. This was one of those times. :(

Hospital Hill

I've finally found a semi-decent hill in Kingaroy. Fittingly, it's called 'Hospital Hill'. Yesterday I ran an interval to get to the bottom of the hill (~1.5k) and then started up. I later measured the hill to be just over 400m from bottom to top...about the same distance as the hill sets I ran in Wondai. Unlike the hills in Wondai, this one had me fighting every step not to throw in the towel and walk up it. Hills are not my strength!
Set 1: 4.03min
Set 2: 4.02min
Set 3: 3.57min

I wish I could say I'd done more than three sets, but I was out of time and had to run back to my place to shower and get ready for work...okay, I 'jogged' back to my place. Next time I'll either give myself more time or drive to the bottom of the hill that I can spend my energy running up it rather than to it.

Six Street Lights

I sadly forgot my music again, but running in a new area piqued my interest enough to let it go. Intervals today. I picked a street near the residence I’m staying and ran down equivalent to 6 street lights and back. ‘Wow’, you’re thinking. ‘Six street lights! Don’t go overdoing it!’ But here the street lights are few and far between.
Round 1: I had a stopwatch hiccup and didn’t measure this one.
Round 2: 6.58min
Round 3: 6.56min
Round 4: 7.00min
Round 5: 6.55min
I was pretty proud of those times. I was sure I had done fantastically! And then I measured the distance. A little over 1200m. That’s a pace of 5.50min/km (I think. Always double check the math against me!). I mean, it’s not bad but it’s not great, you know? If my goal for a half marathon is a 5.41min/km pace I would ideally like to be going faster than that for a short little 1km interval! I guess it’s just tougher when I don’t have others with me spurring me on.
On the bright side, my knee had only mild aches at the last few hundred metres of my final rep. It’s almost all better now. Silly ITB band. I’ve been giving it lots of love.

A Tale of a Long Run

It was the best of runs, it was the worst of runs.

The best: 21.7k in 1.59.23!!! That's not only the farthest I've ever, ever gone, it's also the fastest I've ever run! I have never before broken the 2-hour time barrier. Of course, I didn't count our group rest stops...but I never have before either, and still never made a sub-2hr time. Booyah!!!

The worst: It was going well until the 15k mark. Then my knee started to hurt. A LOT. I stopped to stretch it out a few times, but that didn't help. The pain radiated up to my hip and down through my shin. Consensus was it was my ITB band grumbling at me. Post-run I gave it the love and attention it deserved through oodles of stretching and icing. During the run I wasn't so kind to my unhappy leg. While I know I'm a strong advocate for not running while injured, I discovered that a) it hurt even walking and I was stranded 6k out and b) it hurt less when I ran faster and didn't think about it. So I ran faster and didn't think about it. It helped that I had an amazing running buddy to encourage me along the way.

Lazy sprints

Yesterday, I started on a run. I did! I put on my running clothes, jogged through the warm-up, got to the bottom of my first hill and...stopped. After 5 steps I realized that it was not my day. So I went for a walk instead. Lazy, I know! But I just wasn't feeling it and I didn't want to push myself.
Today I did lazy sprints. I only did 25min of sprints before I finished up on my two hill runs (I ran them both in a decent time). And the sprints weren't as hard core as last week's. Last week, I did two lamp posts of running followed by 1 lamp post recovery. This week I did a mix of 2:1 and 1:1 for running/recovery.
Gotta run! Er, maybe I'll just "leave" and save the running for tomorrow. ;)

Unmotivated

I did NOT want to go out running today. So I decided to go for a walk instead. But I put on my running clothes...just in case. Walked outside and it was numbingly cold! Turned on my ipod and the batteries were dead. Not a good start to the day. But I RAN. I did 4x 1km intervals with a 200m walking break in between. It may not seem like much, but it was better than the nothing I wanted to do initially.
1st km: 5.27min
2nd km: 5.21min
3rd km: 5.24min
4th km: 5.29min

I know I should have done a fifth one but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Still, I was thisclose to not going out at all, so yay for me!

Of Hills & Sprints (on hills)

So, yesterday was my hill training day. Not a lot of decent hills in Wondai. I found two that looked semi-okay. One was about 400m, the other about 450m. I did 5 runs on each hill.
400m: 2.03-2.14min
450m: 2.28-2.35min
the timing of this was not a precise art (especially for the 400m hills as I sometimes started at different points). To be fair, there are lots of decent hills a short drive away. I had no interest in driving anywhere, though.

Today was sprints. I snaked up and around the area sprinting for two light posts and recovery for one. Some were flat, some uphill, and others downhill. I focussed on going as hard as I could. I meant to do 45min but I was wiped after 30min. So, I decided to end with an extra dash of cruelty and ran a 1k interval at the end of my sprint session. I ended up running it with a time of 5.27 despite my deadened legs, so not bad!
Lots more barking dogs in the country. Fortunately, they have thus far all been fenced in securely. I have no desire to get chased down by a dog while on a run! I've experienced it once in the city by a little ankle biter, and never wish to endure that again.

Solo intervals

Yesterday (Tuesday) marked the first day I have ever done solo intervals! Go me! I was rather nervous running by myself at 6am in a strange place. Would there be any country dogs on the loose? Would there be anyone else up at that time? Was I insane to run intervals up and down the street?
Well, insane or not, I did it. I clocked the distance at just over 1.2km total (600m each way). The way out was slightly downhill and the way back slightly uphill. I took a 2 min recovery at the top and managed 5 intervals in the hour. The following denotes split times.
Lap 1: 3.08/6.21
Lap 2: 3.11/7.05
Lap 3: 3.08/7.00
Lap 4: 3.10/7.14 (although I did have to stop for a car on my way back)
Lap 5: 3.14/6.58

Hmm, it appears that I all but flew on my first lap!