In case you were wondering, running 16 miles on pavement after taking a week completely off and not having run any pavement in 3 months is not a really good idea. By the bottom of Bingham Hill my hip flexors were SCREAMING at me, but as usual there is nothing for it but to keep going.
In a mysterious fit of race entering, I signed up for the Horsetooth Half (a hilly road 1/2 marathon – why?!). It’s in two weeks. I figured I should probably check out the course. It’s so funny to look back on my running history and think that my first big race was a half marathon that I took MONTHS to prepare for – now I can run 13 miles “for funsies” whenever I want. I love that.
So, I woke up early-ish on Saturday and rode my bike out to Maxwell Trailhead (7 miles?). There was actually some big bike-related event happening in the parking lot, and I felt a little silly riding my old converted mountain bike – which was then translated to awesome as I changed into my running clothes and ran off.
The hills on the course are a little intense – there are three good grunters which I hope to actually run during the race (I’ve done it once before in training) but I’m debating about how this will impact me in the later miles. I may revert to my “hike if you can hike it faster than you can run it” plan. It was a beautiful day, and I tried to enjoy myself in spite of the relentless pounding. I spent so much time on the bike path training for the marathon last year that I wasn’t particularly excited to be on it again, but hey – maybe familiarity will help me during the race. I did the 13.1 in two hours and 25 minutes, which I was pretty happy with considering the level of derping that was going on. My 1/2 PR is 2:07 – and while I don’t have high hopes of PRing on this course it would be nice to get close.
Which means…back to running. I’m feeling rested now and am ready to ramp up my training for Bighorn. I feel like I’ve built a really good base these last few months and I’m ready to rock it. I surprised myself by actually going to yoga yesterday (after another bike ride with Matt), and it was really good – she happened to focus on hips so I was happy. I think I will really need to make an effort to do yoga regularly during this training cycle to keep things loose.
I also need to get my nutrition back under control and keep eating things that are good for me (it doesn’t help that it’s the end of the semester and it seems like everyone and their brother is having a going away party at work). Eye on the prize, Joselyne – and away from the cake!
Happy running
