Running partners!

Faster people have slowly been coming out of the woodwork to join the Wolf Pack run club on Tuesdays and Thursdays...we now have a great group of 6 or 7 people, and there's usually at least 3 of us on any given day.  This week there were 5 of us on Tuesday, and 4 of us on Thursday.  And then 3 of us ran together on Saturday morning so that we could have a real run before a big group beer run.  It has been a long time since I had running partners my speed or faster, so I am really excited about this new development!  We're hoping to start going to races together too, which will be awesome; race travel is so much more fun with a group!

Also, 2 of them are close to my age..so I also have friends to hang out with on weekends now!

This week : 

T : Wolf Pack 7.6 / 7:45 / 417 ft

W : 6.4 / 7:26 / 476 ft

R: Wolf Pack 5.7 / 7:42 / 262 ft

Sa : 5.2 / 7:51 / 171 ft w/Tom and Corey

Beer Run 5.4 / 8:40 / 95 ft

Su : 4.3 / 7:23 / 190

total : 34.7 miles

Thankfully I've been able to talk the group into running roads and hills with me instead of the flat Creeper Trail, so that's just one more thing that has been making the group runs more enjoyable.  On Tuesday I took us to one of the longer hills that I really enjoy as a training hill...and we got chased by a dog halfway down.  We continued on down the hill, and then had to figure out what to do about the fact that we were on a dead end street but didn't want to run back past the dog.  I had heard there were two houses you could cut between to get to the Creeper Trail, but I had no idea which two houses they were.  We ran around trying to figure it out, then had to give up and brave the dog again.  Of course we got chased again...and I ended up PR-ing the hill by 13 seconds... Thankfully no one got bit, although it was a close call for one person.  I'm disappointed to have lost that hill now, the dog had never been loose before, but I'm not going to be taking a chance on it happening again while I'm alone. 

On Wednesday I did some hill not-quite-sprints spread throughout my run.  Normally with hill sprints I put in about 90-100% effort, I'd say I was closer to 80% for this run.  I was pushing hard, but not trying to go all out.  Felt good though.  

On Thursday Tom took the lead and we went on one of his loops from XC coaching.  It was a nice loop with a good long hill.  We got chased by dogs again, but they weren't too scary, and this time we had Corey the dog whisperer with us so it was no problem.  

On Saturday morning Tom took us on his other XC coaching loop, which was mostly flat.  That afternoon 22 Wolf Pack runners met to do a run across town, starting at Moon Dog Pizza, ending at Wolf Hills, and stopping at every beer-selling restaurant/bar along the way.  It took us about 5 hours to reach Wolf Hills.  

Today I had a nice shake out run.  I did a mostly flat loop, but there was one nice long hill in the middle which I pushed up at a nice pace.  My right hip had been bothering me all morning, but it felt fine on the run so I guess it's not really broken!  

I'm happy to have now completed 4 weeks in a row at 30 or more miles, and I'm feeling pretty good.  Maybe I'll be able to start getting above 35 consistently soon!  I'm also seeing my pace getting a bit faster without having to work harder, so I am very happy about that as well!