August 1 - Saturday - 14 miles!!

The mist hung heavy to the ground this morning as I headed out for my team walk/run. It was as if the clouds dropped from the sky for the night & settled in low to the open fields, waiting for the sun to come out to make their exit. I got up at 5:30, had a small bowl of my usual organic granola with soy milk, & out the door by 6:15. I met Coach Rachel at 6:30 at Pioneers Park and miraculously did a 14 mile walk/run. The walk/run felt ok…about mile 8 I started to feel it, but pushed on. The hills weren’t so bad the first time around, but the second lap and I was really feeling those hills (yes, there are hills in Nebraska!). Of course at every hill, my watch would beep and it was time to run…right when the hill was the steepest! Rachel walked/ran with me most of the time so that was good to help keep me on a good pace. I completed the 14 miles in 3 hrs and 36 minutes (15.4 min/mile) so that is quite an improvement on previous long distance Saturday team runs. Here’s what my times were (in minutes per mile) starting 6 weeks ago. Total miles walked are in parenthesis.
6/20: (7 miles) – 16.6 min/mile
6/27: (8 miles) – 16.5 min/mile
7/4: (10 miles) – 16.2 min/mile
7/11: (10 miles) – 16.7 min/mile
7/18: (12 miles) – 16.8 min/mile
7/25: (6 miles) – 17.5 min/mile (this was my messed up day, disregard it!)
8/1: (14 miles) – 15.4 min/mile
Back to today – so after I completed the 14 miles, I did the usual stretching before getting into my car and heading home. I felt pretty good, but after 15 minutes of sitting in the car to drive home, when I opened the car door in our driveway and took that first step to the house…ouch! I hobbled to the front door! Leo was there to give me a big hug. He had done his usual Saturday routine…went to the recycling place and deposited the recycling items and then stopped off and bought me a bag of ice – yay!
Let me describe that wonderful ice bath I take after long runs: Let see…I put a towel in the bottom of the tub, put on a sweatshirt, sit in the tub, plug the drain, turn on the COLD water, and wait for the tub to fill. When that cold water starts to reach the calves of my legs, it takes my breath away for an instant, and then I start swearing like a sailor! Luckily I have the upstairs to myself so no one hears me (you don’t hear me downstairs, Leo, do you??). So I sit with my legs extended waiting for the water to get about waist deep and then comes the pièce de résistance to this masterful presentation: I dump a large bag of ice cubes in. Again, more swearing. Damn! That’s just plain cold! I start timing it from there…10 more minutes…then mercifully pull the plug and wait for the water to drain out before getting out of the tub. Then in my hypothermia state I go through a warm shower and by the time the sliding shower doors slide open to release me, I feel human again.
My recovery meal after my run was tofu and quickly stir fried veggies (sweet potatoes, cauliflower, green pepper, raw spinach, fresh ginger…yes, I know I’m weird…but it was very colorful!) and also some fresh fruit: pineapple, blueberries, tangelo.
Sara got back a bit later and we heard about her adventures with her 54 mile ride to the Czech festival today. Be sure to check out her blog, too! http://blog.cyclingsawatzki.com/
I relaxed for a while and then Leo & I went up to Omaha to a wedding reception party for (good friend from college) Jayne and husband. It was very nice and relaxing in her backyard and we stayed til about 10:00 and then had an hour drive back to Lincoln.
On the drive back, I was noticing some mileage signs along the interstate and at one point we were way out in the country and the sign said 18 miles to 27th street exit…which was only 4 miles more than I did today. We drove and drove until finally reaching 27th and I was amazed how far that was (linear lines seem much longer than loups!)! Then we looked at the odometer at the 27th street exit (we were still on I-80) and going past that exit, taking the downtown exit, going through downtown Lincoln all the way south to hwy 2 and then to Old Cheney and east to our house…and the total miles were only 11…holy cripes! I couldn’t believe it! That 14 miles was a lot longer distance than I thought. Well, that made me extra tired!
Oh…miles walked/ran this week: 29
Total miles (from beginning of training): 205 !! -woo hoo!!