Picking up the Pace

For awhile now I have been working on including slower runs in my week, and doing a warm-up mile before running faster miles.  I've also been working hard to hold myself back in the first mile of half marathons in order not to go out to fast.  This strategy has not been working super well for me.  It was not my strategy when I was running my best races, and I do not want it to be my strategy anymore.  My best runs have always been about consistency, not about starting slow and speeding up.  So consistency is what I'm working on getting back to.

I can see how starting slow and speeding up is a good strategy for other people, especially to help warm-up the legs, but here is why I think it is not useful to me.  My legs are not my limiting factor when I run.  My lungs are.  And once I establish a pace, it is really hard for my lungs to adjust to a faster pace.  When my lungs struggle, my legs don't get enough oxygen, and then my legs struggle.  If I establish a quicker pace in the beginning, that is the pace that my lungs settle to, and so I'm able to hold it for awhile.  This doesn't mean I want to start off a half-marathon at 6:00 pace, but it does mean that I don't need to be trying to hold myself to 7:30 in my first mile.

My current training goal is to increase my average pace on weekly runs less than 8 or 9 miles.  Less 8:00-8:30, more 7:00-7:45.  My lungs don't get stronger on slow runs, they get stronger when I make them work.  I ran a strong race at the Bluegrass 1/2, but my goal half marathon time is several minutes faster.  I want to get my lungs and legs used to running faster consistently.  I know that I have to be careful not to over-tire my legs in this process, but I am trusting myself to listen to my body.

This week I ended up with 2 hilly tempo runs, a long hill run, and then another run that was supposed to be 5 and ended up being 7... I felt really good on the first 3 runs. I was getting tired towards the end of today's run, but it made sense after how hard I ran all week!

This week : 

M : circuit training 33:15

T : group run 7.5 / 7:14 / 413 ft

W : TRX 45 minutes

R : run w/Corey 8 / 7:34 / 554 ft

F : horseback ride 45 minutes

Sa : run 10.1 / 8:17 / 1440 ft

Su :  run w/Ben 7 / 7:40 / 367 ft

total miles : 32.6

At various times over the years when running long hill climbs, I have contemplated turning around at the top to run the hill again.  I never actually did it, until this Saturday.  I was in West Virginia to ride my horse and go for a hill run, and the run was going really, really well.  The sunshine and temperature were perfect, the turning leaves were gorgeous, and I felt good.  I was running a 3.5 mile stretch of Rt 60 that had mile-ish long ups and downs.  On the way out from the house, the road was down, up, down.  When I turned around and climbed the 1.1 mile climb, I just plain loved it.  It had steeper sections and less steep sections, but it went steadily upwards for the whole 1.1 miles.  3/4 of the way up, I knew I wanted to do it again.  I reached the top, and actually turned around to go back down.  It was just as gorgeous the second time, and I never for a second regretted my decision.  

I have been frustrated lately, realizing that I have lost some of my hill strength since leaving WV.  Being able to do those long hill climbs this weekend and feel strong doing them made me feel a lot better!  

The view at the start of Saturday's run.

Heading down the first hill on Saturday.

Enjoyed getting to see this cute Pony on Friday!

Grayson Highlands 9-23-2017

I hadn't made plans to go hiking on Saturday, but when I woke up that morning, still sore from Thursday's TRX, I decided that I needed to go hiking because it would be better for my muscles than sitting on the couch all day.  I had a whole bunch of chores to do, but I decided to ignore them, and off to Grayson Highlands I went.  When I arrived, I discovered that there was a festival going on, and most of the ponies had been rounded up for that.  So there was only one pony sighting on my hike.  But the trees are turning, and the sky was blue with puffy white clouds, so the scenery was nothing short of gorgeous.

After a very busy week of extra long days, this hike was exactly what I needed to recharge my batteries. I hiked just under 6 miles with 869 feet of climbing so it made my legs more sore instead of less sore, but it was totally worth it!

on top of the world 

taking in the gorgeous view

...just climbing a tree in the middle of a clearing in the woods...

A Sunrise, a Scenic Railroad, and a Rainbow...What a day!

I'm in my seventh year of teaching, and so far, there have only been 2 years that my job description was the same.  The other five years have all been different.  This year's "something new" is that I spend 6+ hrs a week as a teacher assistant in the 2nd/3rd grade classroom.  Somehow, this turned into me getting asked to go along on their field trip today.  Since most of my Thursday schedule involves that class anyway, it wasn't too hard to take care of my 2 other classes and be free to go along on the field trip.

I suspected that I would be tired after a day-long field trip, so I got up extra early this morning to get my run done and out of the way.  4.8 miles in the moonlight, watching the fog in the valleys, and then I somehow got cleaned up and fed and it was barely past 7.  So, I headed to work early to get some things done before we left on the field trip.  I glanced out the window somewhere around 7:25 and saw a gorgeous pink and blue sky.

Less than 5 minutes later, the sky was gray and cloudy.  Not a hint of color to be seen.  I got some work done and then we piled into a few cars and headed towards the Cass Scenic Railroad.  Highlights/Entertainment on the trip up included 7 yr old girls singing along to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and a 7 yr old boy requesting his favorite song : Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."  Thankfully, "Wrecking Ball" was not on the iPod. I enjoyed getting to talk to a parent I didn't know very well, while the kids sang and played games in the back.  I also enjoyed the scenery.  Some trees are still green and too many have already lost their leaves, but there's still a decent amount of color on the rest of the trees.  There were a few lingering clouds hanging out in the treetops that looked really cool as well.

Once we arrived at Cass Scenic Railroad, we watched a short film about the history of the old logging town/lumber industry, walked through the little museum, and then boarded the train.

After the trip up the mountain to Whittaker Station and back to Cass, we had a picnic lunch and spent some time on the playground before heading back to school.  The ride back was quite entertaining, but sadly I don't remember the specific funny quotes that I wanted to remember.  I'm tired. Once back at school, I did some work and uploaded/edited the photos from the trip.  I just happened to glance out the window at one point and caught this:

Sometimes, it pays to stay at work late!  But it has been a very long day and I am looking forward to a good night of sleep!

One-of-a-Kind Photography Adventure

Yesterday was a long, exciting day!  I ran the Beckley 1/2 in the morning, then had to immediately rush home, get cleaned up, get some food in my belly, and then head back out for a 6 hour photography adventure.

Step 1 of the photography adventure was photographing a farm in VA, 

about 30 minutes from Lewisburg.  

Step 2 of the adventure started when this arrived:

We climbed aboard (they put me in the front so I could take pictures), and flew towards Morgantown.

I-64 and the Greenbrier

Summersville Lake

Milan Puskar Stadium

Part of my assignment for the day was to take aerial shots of a baseball field that is under construction not too far from WVU.  Once were were done circling the construction, we headed to the airport, where we were met by a police escort which sped us through traffic and red lights straight to the football stadium.  We watched the first half of the game, then headed back to the airport and our helicopter. 

Step 3 of the adventure was photographing the absolutely gorgeous fall foliage that we flew over on the way back home. 

Highland Scenic Highway

I've been absolutely spoiled on the view of fall foliage from above.  

It will never be the same from the ground...

A very exhausted me arrived home around 7:15 PM from this adventure.  I started sorting through the 700+ photographs, but didn't make it very far before calling it quits and crawling into bed for some much needed and hard-earned sleep.