Long, Hard One
Yesterday the marathon training group did a long run along the Carquinez Strait, on the east side of Martinez--along the bluffs above the invisible water (fog, y'know). Whew. In the past when I've trained for a marathon on my own, I've never done long runs two weeks in a row. But now I'm trying to be flexible and to believe that makers of this training schedule have designed a workable program, one in which doing 15 miles on the heels of doing 12 is fine.
Crunch time--where the rubber soles met the road.
It was a hard run (did I already say that?). The fog never lifted, and a cold wind was blowing by the time I turned around at 7.5-plus miles on this out-and-back course. The "plus" was a little extra I had to tack on in order to find a secluded spot to, uh, heed the call of nature. Now I'm sure you've never done that.
Might have been hallucinating on the return portion of the run.
My left hip was sore, as was my left knee--this left-side vulnerability is most likely a result of the hard fall I took in 2009. Posts from my injured April can be found in the 2009 archives of this blog. Anyway. I was sore yesterday--from tension, my shoulders hurt too--but somehow in retrospect, I rate this run as excellent. I love running with the group, even though at the end I am likely to be the last one in. The first part of the run, which was the hilliest, flew by, thanks to good conversation. And a mighty fine aid station (bananas! gels! bagels!) appeared like a vision out of the fog right before the turnaround. Thanks, Susan.
Finally, I give you this bonus photo (click to enlarge).
It relates not at all to running other than to show the quality of the light Friday (seen here at the bus terminal in SF), which signaled to me that the cold, rainy weather that has characterized this winter may be on the wane. This was taken at 5:30 pm, as I waited to make my escape from work into a three-day weekend. Documented evidence that the light is lingering longer and that spring may come!
Crunch time--where the rubber soles met the road.It was a hard run (did I already say that?). The fog never lifted, and a cold wind was blowing by the time I turned around at 7.5-plus miles on this out-and-back course. The "plus" was a little extra I had to tack on in order to find a secluded spot to, uh, heed the call of nature. Now I'm sure you've never done that.
Might have been hallucinating on the return portion of the run. My left hip was sore, as was my left knee--this left-side vulnerability is most likely a result of the hard fall I took in 2009. Posts from my injured April can be found in the 2009 archives of this blog. Anyway. I was sore yesterday--from tension, my shoulders hurt too--but somehow in retrospect, I rate this run as excellent. I love running with the group, even though at the end I am likely to be the last one in. The first part of the run, which was the hilliest, flew by, thanks to good conversation. And a mighty fine aid station (bananas! gels! bagels!) appeared like a vision out of the fog right before the turnaround. Thanks, Susan.
Finally, I give you this bonus photo (click to enlarge).
It relates not at all to running other than to show the quality of the light Friday (seen here at the bus terminal in SF), which signaled to me that the cold, rainy weather that has characterized this winter may be on the wane. This was taken at 5:30 pm, as I waited to make my escape from work into a three-day weekend. Documented evidence that the light is lingering longer and that spring may come!
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