Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

Archives for January 2006

Marathon Pace Run, turned “Chase Run”

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When you have young children, and have a goal such as running a marathon with a Boston Qualifying time, training can be interesting. Today I was scheduled to run a “pace run” per Hal’s Intermediate I program. My son, YaYa, accompanies me. He is 7 years old. He rides a bike well but I am still not comfortable with him on the bike path as I would like to be. Shortly after we got moving along the path, YaYa takes a spill. Okay, now we got that over with. He brushes off the dirt and we are moving again.

Now he’s moving pretty briskly and I am chasing after him offering him instructions and encouragement. “Stay right, YaYa”, “Okay, watch out for bikes coming from behind when you pass those walkers”, “Make sure the lady with the dog knows you are coming so that she can keep her dog to the right”. It’s hard enough to keep up with him, but even more difficult to yell these instructions along the way. “Good job, YaYa”.

After a bit YaYa starts to slow down. I’m not sure if he is getting tired, is bored, or just taking in the scenery. We stop for water and get moving again. When we come to the little hills I push him from behind and tell him to “peddle, peddle” and “use your strong legs”. He wants me to lead the way, but I want him in front of me so that I can be sure that he is safe. “How about if I just follow the pink girl?” he suggests seeing another runner ahead of us. “Well, that is fine until we pass her”, I explain. “What about the blue guy?” he asks. “The pink girl will be passing him soon”, I go on. “What bridge were you talking about?” he keeps asking. “YaYa, you will see the bridge when we get to it”, I go on. I’m tired just thinking about all of the questions.

Finally we reach the bridge and I have him get off of the bike because the downhill side is pretty steep. There are metal poles at the bottom to keep the cyclists from going down it too fast. YaYa runs down the bridge while I run with his bike to the bottom. He gets back on and we continue on a dirt path for the last half of a mile. It seems sort of silly to even go over the bridge for such a short distance, but I am “Type A” about my training. I need to have logged the required distance. The terrain is more difficult for YaYa to maneuver. He struggles with the hills and the rugged trail. I slow down to help him steer and push him up the hill. We run a bit over a quarter mile and then we turn back. As I turn around, I glance at my GPS device. My average pace has dropped from 8:40 to 8:56. This just won’t do. I get YaYa started and pick up the pace in an effort to regain my planned marathon pace. I don’t quite recover the pace by the end of the dirt trail but I’m sure glad to be done. Run 5.16 (45:53)

Chicken Little

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Over the past few days I’ve felt a bit like Chicken Little looking up at the sky and holding back the urge to scream, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”. It’s mainly been the tree branches in the area that have been falling from the sky due to the increased wind and rain. I’ve been looking at the sky and using that as an excuse to avoid running outside. It’s a self-preservation measure. I’ve already fallen pretty good you see and I don’t want to risk falling again at least until my hand has healed.

While driving to the local YMCA to do my time indoors on the “mill”, or indoor cycle, I’ve driven past runners out in the rain. There are very few, but in the rain they trudge just as I have done winter after winter…just not today. I think back to training for my first marathon, in the winter of 2001-2002, when my husband and I ran in the rain and learned the value of that really expensive raingear. We were drenched, cold, and wondering how long the rainy winter would last. We were soon heading to the running store to purchase our raingear for running. We were so much happier runners after that and I even enjoyed running in the rain.

Today I looked outside the window and noticed green hillsides that used to be all brown. It looked a bit cool, but it wasn’t raining. Today’s training program calls for a short 3-miler. It seems silly to run indoors on the “mill” again today when there is no rain coming down. I grabbed my GPS, running wear, and headed for the hills (small ones). Though it was only 3 miles, and I was careful not to go to fast and risk falling, it sure felt good to get outdoors again. The wind was blowing so hard, at times, that I had to lean into it to keep moving. It was refreshing.
When I run outdoors, I usually try to give a greeting to everyone I pass. Even when I am wearing headphones I try to wave, or say, “hello” to everyone I meet on the trail. Running is just so much more enjoyable that way. It is always interesting to see who returns the greeting and who does not. My running friends have a few theories. Runners are the friendliest. Cyclists are pretty friendly too but you have to watch carefully for the nod or wave because they don’t have a lot of time to offer it up. Walkers are the snootiest. It does not make any sense. They aren’t out of breath and they should be the ones who have more time to receive the greeting and return the nicety. Today the walkers were grumpy, the cyclists just didn’t have the time, and the runners were too much in a hurry. I caught up to one girl who had a sore knee. Her knee was wrapped up, she admitted, as I made small talk for a minute. She was the only one who was friendly. There was an older man at the parking lot that I gave an overly cheerful, “hello” to. He did say, “Hello”, back to me but made it very clear that it was against his better judgment. I didn’t let it get me down but just wondered, as I made the final stretch back to the office, am I the only one happy to be out exercising in 2006? Run 3.6 miles (32:43)

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