Stressed out + running = good and bad

I ran yesterday, for the first time in over a week. This layoff was due mostly to a family medical situation that forced me to be on the phone for hours a day with various people as well as required a few trips to the hospital. So despite my feeling stressed out and tired, I figured it would do me some good to run.

Oddly enough, before I knew it, I was finished running up the killer hill. For the first time in pretty much ever, it did not feel too terribly taxing, but, of course, it was no walk in the park either. As I was running, I was thinking I had a good chance to finish that first mile in under 10 minutes again, so I pushed myself as much as I could. As I came near the top of the hill at the end of mile 1, my stopwatch hit 9:43. In full disclosure, I turned around just before I reached the peak, but that was still probably my best time to date.

Unfortunately, I paid for that during my second mile back, which is mostly downhill. More often than not, I try to run down the last steep hill, to keep that second mile time around 8:30 or so. Yesterday, it was all I could do to jog the last couple tenths of a mile. I ended up finishing that mile in about 8:50, which is the worst second mile I have had for quite some time. I was also not able to run up the driveway of the school and run around the upper lot to get in at least another half mile, as I typically do when I have finished my two miles.

Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. But for now, I can at least be glad I got a short run in this week.

Sucking wind (or Why I should not let so much time lapse between runs)

I last ran on Saturday the 9th, in the Race for Pace, clocking in around 27 minutes AND beating a sixth grader on the cross-country team, in case you forgot!

The weather was crappy several days last week, and the one day that it was nice, I was just not feeling it, so I walked for about 20 minutes instead. Today, however, I knew I had slacked off long enough, so I set out for my usual run.

Of course the beginning hill was awful. I was panting like a dog in the summer and cursing myself for letting nine days go by since I last ran. But I soldiered on, and even forced myself to pick up some speed as I started the final uphill near the end of the first mile. I was not about to let the half dozen guys paving the road think that I was out of shape!

I finished the first mile in just under 10 minutes, so I can't be disappointed. The second mile I ended up in about 8:15, so also a pretty good pace. I ran at a more leisurely pace for most of the third mile, speeding up for the last two minutes of my run.

All in all, despite my feeling out of shape at the beginning, I have to call it a good run. I managed to get in about three miles, in about 28 minutes. But the important thing is I actually ran.

On a funny note, as I was waiting in my car after school (about 15 minutes after I had finished my run), one of the teachers asked me if I had gone tanning, as my face looked "different." Yeah, no hiding when I exercise; even if I have stopped sweating, the red face remains for quite some time. :-)

Race for Pace

I ran in the Race for Pace this morning. I decided since this was, in all likelihood, going to be my last race of the year, I should "leave nothing on the field" as Hines Ward says. So from the get-go, particularly since the beginning has a slight downhill, I started off at a pretty nice pace. Within the first minute and a half or two, I ran up to one of the seventh graders that I sub. I think he runs (or at least ran) cross-country, and I did notice he started the race at the front of the pack, something that "good" runners tend to do. When I reached him, I asked what his pace was, thinking if it was around 9 minutes, maybe I could run with him. He told me he had no idea, and I realized that I was slowing down a little to talk to him, so I left him in the dust, never to see him again until after the race.

So how was the race? The course has some up and down hills, nothing as steep as what I normally run, as well as some flat sections. I did my best to pick up speed any time I went down a hill, which helped with my timing. The unfortunate thing was there was no one shouting out times or mile markers, at least not when I ran by, so I had no idea how far I had run at any point during the race.

During the last just over 1/2 mile (or thereabouts), a woman behind was saying to her running buddy that they needed to pick up the pace going up this last hill. Personally, I was really struggling, having given it pretty much my all so far, but when I heard her say, "We run 10-minute miles normally; we run 9-minute miles for races," it seemed as if she was talking to me. So I decided to push it as much as I could, which was not easy. I also looked at my cell phone stopwatch at that point and was both surprised and excited to see I had been running for just over 21 minutes. Even though there was a good crowd at this race, I started to believe I could finish it way under 30 minutes and maybe even place.

I gave it pretty much all I had as turned the corner into the long driveway to the school, and I crossed the finish line at what I remembered as 26 minutes. Unfortunately, as I later discovered, I actually crossed the time clock at 27 minutes; no idea why I remembered it as 26.

I ended up finishing in 5th place in my age group out of 15 and 138/300, at a time of 27:01. For comparison's sake, when I ran this race in 2002, I finished 1st in my age group out of 8 and 75/195 at a time of 26:20. I am pretty happy considering I am eight years older than when I last ran this race, I had to run with an extra 100-plus people, and I ran only once this week, on Monday, and no times last week thanks to being sick.

Do you hear that sound? It is I, giving myself a high five and a pat on the back.