Running with the fast snails...

I have had a couple of good workouts since Sunday. Cubbie and I met up at Daffin Park on Tuesday for our planned hour run. It has been nice to get back in the groove of running with my partner; I do believe I like a healthy mix of solo runs and partnered/group runs. I think I have ADD so it is nice to switch things up alot!

We started our run, hittting the first 1 1/2 mile lap at 15:48. Two months ago this was a "fast" time, it is nice to see that we are starting to really make progress in our fitness level. We hit the halfway mark at 31:50. holding onto sub 16 laps. We decided to venture off of the beaten path and explore some of the surrounding neighborhood for our last 30 minutes of the run.

Cubbie convinced me it would be a good idea to run to her "New Shack" so we made it there and back in the planned time finishing our run at 1:02:xx. On a side note, I set out a couple of water bottles I planned to pick up at the halfway point. Cubbie is as stubborn as a mule when it comes to taking water during a run. She has this mental thing about stopping and also just doesn't want to drink during a run. As I have discovered, I HAVE to consume water on a run or I will totally BONK. I grabbed one of the two water bottles and carried(and consumed) the bottle on the second half of the run. I was really glad I did, it was hot and I was sweating like a whore in church. Funny, with about ten minutes left, Cubbie was "struggling" and "wished I had that water bottle".

I have been hemming and hawwing about joining the local running group for their Wednesday, 6:30am, track workout. I met Kevin, a Fleet Feet employee, at one of the events they sponsor. He told me he is a 10 min. pacer and that we should run together. I finally decided to jump in with two feet and showed up early that morning for a real workout.

There were about a half dozen people there; Kevin and I stood out like sore thumbs. (sorry Kevin) Everyone looked like they had just stepped off of the cover of this month's Runner's World. I think Kevin could read the apprehension in my eyes and comforted me with a "don't worry, we are going to do our own track workout"

Warmed up with a easy 12 minute mile, some light streches and then came the pain!

400's (4 total with about a minute and a half rest between)
1:55
1:53
1:55
1:52

Kevin said the hard part was over, He is a very good liar!

200's (8 total, rest was the walk across the field)
:50
:52
:55
:53
:54
:55
:52
:50

I cooled down with a half mile jog in the opposite direction to "unwind"

All the while we were doing our workout , the local gazelles were churning up the track doing 4's and 8's. (Look at me with the speedwork lingo!) They were really killing it! Sparking the drive within me to one day be able to do their workout. During one of the breaks everyone came up and introduced themselves to me and really made me feel welcome. Great, now I can't hold the opinion that fast runners are "snobby jerkfaces because they are so fast!"

I was smoked but loved every second of it. I promised Kevin to be back and he is interested in joining us on our long run this Sunday. He is training for Chicago and Cubbie is excited to have another Chicago runner in the fold....wonder if I will need to come up with a nickname for Kevin...I think I will adopt his already used name of "spokes" I think that nickname is used tongue & cheek, I will do some further investigation.

I have another run with Cubbie this evening, 1 hour, then we are going to tackle a two hour run on Sunday....65 days until the marathon...one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.