Thursday, March 20, 2008

spring equinox



can hardly believe that spring has arrived, especially since the weather leading up to the vernal equinox was anything but spring-like. in fact, the last two days have been incredibly tough, weather-wise, to get in my training runs. yesterday was a water-logged mess and today was something akin to wind tunnel conditions - sustained winds of 20+ mph, with gusts well over 30 mph!! oh well, did i mention that spring has arrived ;)


on top of the weather mess, tuesday night i inexplicably developed a nasty, hacking cough that persisted through the night. i woke up with the cough subdued - but replaced by a raw, sore throat. it seemed like a case of strep - ugh. but aside from losing my voice, my throat got better and the mysterious affliction vanished in the mist - or should i say rain.


it rained all day yesterday. i waited by the door for it to let-up a little. when it slowed to a drizzle, i started out - hoping for 8 miles, but willing to settle for whatever i could get in. ran almost a mile before the rain returned to full strength. by the end of 2 miles, i was soaked - to the point my running shoes squished. time to head back and leave it at 4 miles. but it calmed back down to a drizzle soon enough and i decided to go for 6.


after 5 miles, it started raining heavily again - and the though of going for the full 8 quickly disappeared. waterlogged and all, i got in 6 miles, in 46:35, a 7:46 pace. since this was short of my target of 8 miles, i'd go back out again later for some extra mileage. i didn't realize that it would be 10 pm when in went back out again! but instead of rain, it was just a light mist and high humidity. i ran 4 more miles in 32:19, an 8:05 pace. that made 10 for the day, and 33 miles, cumulatively, for the week.


today, i opted for a different course - a hilly, beastly route. it's one that i usually run on weekends as part of a long run. as a follow-up to the hilly wurtsboro course, this route would provide some challenging elevation gain - in anticipation of the 10,000 feet of elevation gain over the 50k of trails in the h.a.t. run. i didn't mind the hills - but mile after mile into the wind was demoralizing. it was in the high 40's and sunny - but the wind chill made it feel like it was below freezing!


it took 1:23:09, an 8:19 pace, to run those 10 miles. i pushed the pace the entire way! it was so hard to run head down into the wind that i lost count of how many uphills made me want to drop down into a walk, or a crawl! at the start of mile 7, i was cold enough to put on gloves. but my hands had gotten so numb at that point that, even with the gloves on, my fingers wouldn't warm up. but when it was over, 10 more miles were done, 43 for the week.

theme song for today, easily, is bob weir singing "black-throated wind" :D

6 comments:

Paul said...

I'm still amazed at the distances you will be covering in races the next few weeks. In stark contrast - and in answer to your question on my blog - my next planned race will be on 5/3 in the form of the masters mile at the Somers Lions track meet.
Later in May I'll probably run the Pleasantville 5K followed by the North County News 5K in June.

A Plain Observer said...

ow... that diagram...it scared me. Yesterday was messy, I ran on the treadmill. But once you were outthere...you can only get so wet!
I added a song to my blog but I still can't figure out how to do the little pictures and links you do on yours.

rundangerously said...

wow, myriam!! you changed the template as well!! awesome!

if you can do that, all you need to insert a picture is a click on the posting tool bar where the image is. it prompts you on how to insert the photo.

paul,

would you be interested in checking out the nyrr track series on tuesday nights at icahn track? starts up in early may, runs into early june.

i ran the p'ville 5k way back in 2002 or so. has a couple of hills. haven't done ncn - but heard that it's pancake flat (but rd's always say that - haha).

CTmarathoner said...

It sounds like Paul is a purist -targeting a few 5Ks...quite the opposite of ultra training, where is one is training to run far, not fast:) RD, you have so much natural leg speed and endurance-when you take a break from ultras you will fly.
The NCC 5K is a race I always wanted to do, but always had a conflict! They gave out great sweatshirts. That race used to be, in the 1990s, the NCC hill-climb 10K, the 'toughest race in NE' (but that's what they all say). It was so tough (I ran the 10K 3 times and still have the tacky t-shirt -a man grunting up a steep hill) that participation dwindled and they changed it to a flat 5K!
good luck to anyone racing it!

Anonymous said...

Rundan, glad to check your blog. Nice bunch of miles in the coming weeks. Greetings from Spain.
SPJ

rundangerously said...

luis,

thanks for stopping by. thanks for the greetings from spain. my friend myriam, above, should have no problem reading your posts!!

i, on the other hand, will have to brush up on my italian and enlist my daughter's emerging spanish speaking skills to translate your posts! i'm looking fwd to your occassional post in english ;)

myriam,
when you have some time, check out luis' blog from spain!