Sunday, June 17, 2012

Strange Running

I had a very solid week both with running and riding. I can feel my legs getting stronger again. Woo! But it was kind of strange. Some things happened. Some good. Some not so good. :(

Strange Run #1
On Thursday morning, I decided to do a tempo run and ran 6 miles with 2 at tempo. It was fabulous. I LOVE tempos. What wasn't so fabulous was the end of the run. I was almost home and I passed this guy on a bike going in the opposite direction. Next thing I know, he's turned around and riding next to me. He wouldn't take the hint to go away and he was being lewd, talking about my body and giving me a workout. I  I didn't know how to get rid of him. :( And I was almost home so I was nervous he would follow me there. But then thankfully, one of the regular runners turned on to the trail with his dog and the creep turned around and left. I have never been so relieved to see another runner before in my life!

The whole thing left me feeling...ick. The very thing that I run to get rid of. :( Oh, and I was going to finish with surges but he interrupted them. Boo! I don't really know what I should have done. I actually squelched my urge to cuss him out because, well, I sort of have a temper and my friends are always telling me that flipping men off or calling them a$$holes might escalate things. I don't want to run with pepper spray or a taser like they suggested. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO!!! Come on! I just want to run and have the weirdos leave me alone.

Strange Run #2
On Saturday, I was supposed to run 18 miles. I decided to run up Indian Truck Trail which is where next Saturday's Billy Goat Half is going to be. I expected the marine layer to hang around til 10 like it had the last few days so I thought I would make it up to the top while it was still cool. But it burned off before 8 and the run up was uncovered for the majority of it so I used up most of my water. I decided to do at least 6.5 miles up and then turn around so I'd get 13 in.

A big miscalculation on my part but a beautiful run.

If only it had been like this the whole way...

This is the elevation chart for the run and next week's half.
The run down was fun! A great reward for the climb up. My quads were whining in the last mile but overall it was a good run. I just wish I could have spent more time up there. I really need to take my Nathan filled to the brim with water just in case.

Strange Run #3
Because I didn't get all 18 miles in on Saturday, I decided to add it to the 8 I had planned for Sunday. I also planned to run at midnight to get in some training for the ET Full Moon Midnight 51K in August. After Thursday's run, I was nervous to say the least. I guess this is one time having access to a treadmill would come in handy. Since I don't have one, I decided to run repeats of a 1 mile section of the bike trail. Boring, right? But what's nice about that section is that my bff, Mondi, lives along it in the middle so if I needed help, I had her house I could go to. And there's a water fountain at one end so I had access to water every 2 miles and I didn't have to carry any.

Surprisingly, it wasn't as freaky as I thought it would be. There was actually a somewhat steady stream of people on the trail. Who knew people stayed up that late! The other thing I was worried about was falling asleep but that wasn't a problem either. The hardest part was that my quads were a little sore from the morning and my legs had zero pep. Oh, but my feet were good. :)

Strange But Not All Bad
What was great about the week is that I'm putting some speed/tempo work back in my schedule and it's feeling good. Hard, but good. I also got some great hill training in, some night running under a moonless, starry sky (and saw a coyote), and most importantly... got some serious mental training. I SO wanted to put the night run off until the morning but I didn't. :) I was very worried about being able to run from midnight til morning but I feel like I can now. Yeah!

So a few missteps/icky parts but overall a great week. How was your week? Anything exciting coming up this week?

3 comments:

  1. That guy still creeps me out for you!! SO glad a runner came along! Sounds like last week was a good week for you! You always have so many fun and interesting races lined up! Gorgeous pictures too!

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    1. It's still creeping me out too. :( Sometimes I wish they were a little less exciting!

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  2. That is not nice how some jerk thinks that it is ok to cycle along side you and creep you out! You could mention it to the police so they could potentially add it to there route.

    The other thing to do would be to mention it to your running community so they can be on alert, it might be a one off, but better safe than sorry. Finally perhaps open the question up to the running community to ask how can we stay safe and tazer free during our runs. Perhaps a code of safety?

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