Out of Bed and To the Hills

Yesterday, I struggled to get out of bed at 7:45 am so that I could run 5 miles and be back on time for Tom to jump on his bike. We were meeting our friend and old neighbor, Jack, for coffee at 10:15 am. The plan was for Tom to ride his bike and meet us there. I managed it but my legs felt like they were still in bed for the majority of the run. My head wasn’t all there either. I did the deed and just didn’t care that the run was only 4.6 miles. Tuesday’s run was a mile longer that the schedule called for so it all balances out.

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to drag myself out of bed this morning on time. Today, I was meeting up with Cindy and Amy for another trail run. The plan was to meet at the park at 6:45 am and be running by 7 am. At 4 am, upon hearing a thump in the front yard, I got up to look out the window. It was only the newspaper being delivered. I shut the window and then walked down the hall to pull the covers over YaYa. YaYa always seems to be huddled up in tight ball, desperately trying to keep warm, while the covers lay below his feet on the bed or on the floor. I returned to bed and slept for until 5:59 am.

We began the run at a pretty brisk pace. Cindy was out in the lead and seemed rearing to go from having not run yesterday. I kept up but wasn’t feeling all strong and fast like I’ve been feeling all week.

Since garminia doesn’t get a strong signal in the park, I tend to look at the time that we hit each of the key parts of the trail as a gauge for how we are doing. We hit the first of these at 15 minutes – slightly faster than usual. This is where the major hill climbing begins. It is a 2 mile climb to the next marker and we usually stop to rest, stretch, and collect up our energy and motivation before continuing on. Last year, I would usually hit this marker by 36 minutes. Today we hit it just under 34 minutes. This was validating; no matter how slow and sluggish I felt, it just wasn’t true. I was doing fine.

We continued up the path and I was now feeling great. Since I know the trail the best, I took the lead when we hit the single-track portion of the run. Before I knew it, we were circling back toward the start running downhill as easy and carefully as the trail would let us.

Amy and I are both registered for the Nike Women’s Half-Marathon in October, but Amy is considering making hers a full. I am sticking to the half, since the hills of San Francisco is not the best place to attempt a BQ. On the other hand, I sure would like my “bling” (a necklace designed by Tiffany & Co) to say “26.2” instead of “13.1”. Oh well, the hill work will benefit me whatever distance I am running.

As Amy and I chatting about marathon training plans, and the best way to plan from this point forward, Cindy plowed ahead of us down the hill. Cindy loves the downhills and I would swear that she has wheels on her shoes the way she goes down so quickly. We were all back together by the time we made it to the bottom of the hill. With a little more than a mile to go we turned back towards the parking lot.

I said goodbye to Cindy and Amy by the bridge near the parking lot. They went on for another mile or so and I am proud to say that I resisted the temptation to continue on with them. 9.5 miles is far enough at this point in my training. My marathon is still 16 weeks away.