Week 3 Marathon training (15 to go)…

This is me.

Yes I am dressed like a taco.

A  holy hell if I had balls they’d be frozen to my thighs cold taco.

This was taken yesterday (February 5th) and the weather was a chilly 9F. Factor in the wind chill and it was a bone crushing -6F.

Why the taco outfit you ask (you ARE asking right)? I spent the morning volunteering at a water stop (the halfway point) during the Hypothermic Half Marathon. When I moved to Halifax I decided to to join a running group and fell in love with, happened upon Heart & Sole. Totally free. Totally friendly. Totally talked me into wearing this taco outfit while we passed out water (and hand warmers).

I’m a sucker when it comes to playing dress up.

Back in Tacoma I never volunteered before at a race. I was always too damn eager to register as a runner. As a newbie I wanted to be in everything I could get my hands on (within a reasonable distance of course by which I mean both what I could run and how far I was willing to drive). Now I’m looking at the longer distance races which come fewer and farther in between. Also being unable to work puts a damper on your ability to pay for all the fees. So instead of earning another 13.1 medal I earned the thank you(s) of all the runners that I got to cheer on as they ran by me. I was freezing. They were freezing. No seriously they were freezing. Some of them had icicles hanging off of their beards and running hats. Not to mention the frost collecting on their eyelids (I at least had a warm car I could hop in for a few minutes in between down times). It was super awesome to see the first (super fast super competitive) runners. I never get a chance to see them unless they are already on their way back to the finish line and they happen to have to run back towards the slower runners. It was even better to see the last of the runners and remember what it was like to be at the back of the pack and throw them a little extra loud cowbell their way as they got to the halfway point and headed back another 6.55 miles to the finish line.

While I always thank volunteers I see on a route, I have a new found respect for people that take a few hours out of their day to cheer me on while I try to grab a small cup of water, figure out how to drink it, crush the cup and find the garbage can to toss my newly crushed cup away so they don’t have to clean up after me. I’m going to be extra vigilant to pass out my thank you(s) more freely. If you happen to be wearing a taco costume when I run by you have my undying love and admiration.

It was a great way to end a great week of running.

While I didn’t “move” as many miles this week as I did in week #2 I ran more. I didn’t incorporate as much walking this week as work has been a little hectic for Meegan and some days walking to meet her didn’t pan out. Last week I moved a total of 29 miles over 7 days (of which 18 miles were running). This week I moved a total of 24 miles over 4 days (of which 22 were running). I feel really good about that. My longest run Friday (8 miles) was spectacular. I thought after running 3 days in a row without a rest day before my long run would make for a hard (both physically and mentally) day. I planned ahead and kept the route close to home and added something that I love to do:

I know call me crazy but I do have a slight love affair with hills. It might be because I used to live in a place where you can’t run anywhere without running up or down some hill (and by some hill I mean a ginormous I’m gonna die kind of hill). Since I’m still learning the in(s) and out(s) of Halifax mapping out longer runs can be a little more frustrating that what it’s worth. A few weeks ago I thought I had mapped out a good 6 mile run only to find myself lost and practically on the freeway (both not good). I know my neighborhood pretty damn good and I don’t live to far from a beautiful historic land mark known as Citadel Hill.

To run the base and then up around the top is just shy of 2.1 miles. It’s about a mile from my home. That means that on Friday I left my house, ran the mile to the Citadel, spent 6 glorious miles running around the base, running up the hill, running around the top, running down the hill before finally heading home for the last of the 8 miles. Of course the picture above doesn’t do justice to the elevation so I of course mapped it on mapmyrun:

Hell yes!

It was a great week to run. 8 miles is the longest I’ve run since completing the 18 mile trail run back in October. I thought I would be more disappointed at this point that I haven’t run double digits but to be completely honest with you, I’m not disappointed at all. As I’ve eased back into a running schedule I’ve really enjoyed paying attention to how different conditions affect the pace of my run. I’ve learned to appreciate how my muscles feel on those days I feel like I am breezing through the miles and I’ve learned to appreciate how my brain feels on those days where I just can’t seem to take another step. I’m already a stronger runner today than I was 3 weeks ago so I know there is no rush to get up to the double digits. I trust Chris and his schedule in getting me to my first marathon the same way I trusted c25k to get me to my first 5k. This week is a bit of a taper back with my long runs (6 miles) but an increase in my short runs (4 miles)…next week is my first double digit run (10 miles)…

hmmmmm

Maybe I’ll go back to Citadel hill.