I’m doing another catch-up post because I’m behind, but I split this out because my memories were vivid and it was getting long. I’m also going to do what I’ve resorted to for my book blog, and date the posts to publish in the past when they happened, rather than when I got around to writing them. (This was written and posted on October 8th, so only about a month behind—book posts have had much greater discrepancies!)
Week 9 (9/11 – 17, Tue-Mon): total ~32 (5.4/7.4/4.1/15.65)
Avg resting HR: 60
Weight: 116
CityStrides coverage of Northampton: mid-fifties?
Long run: 15.65 miles; avg HR 157; time 3:37; average pace 13:51
It was our 35th anniversary(!) that week and we took a wonderful weekend trip to Burlington, Vermont. So the second short run was along the beautiful waterfront bike path (on Sunday I rode my bike all the way along the causeway into Lake Champlain, which is amazing and not to be missed.)
There’s always at least one terrible run in training, but I think this was my second or third this time around. I was supposed to do 16 but cut it short, which is super-unusual for me.
- I was running in the middle of the day on a Monday because I had a morning meeting even though I had the day off (we had driven back from a lovely anniversary trip in Burlington on Sunday and I didn’t want to cram in a four-hour run) and it was hot (almost 80) and fairly humid.
- Because I was in a hurry I guesstimated proportions on the switchel in my Camelbak. Huge mistake! Way too much molasses and not enough water. I ended up drinking from a stream and from a recreation water fountain, which slowed me down and wasn’t enough. I think I lost 3-4 pounds on this run when I can usually keep it under 2. Ugh.
- Hills hills hills! I’m doing some each week but the steep ones are only on the long runs, so I’m not a hill-eating regular like I was in the Endless Mountains days.
- A driver pulled over to yell at me. I was on River Road in Leeds, which has very little shoulder (and no houses along it), but not tons of traffic either—similar to roads I ran in Pennsylvania all the time. I was running on the left as usual, ready to jump out of the way of oncoming traffic, when a middle-aged woman in a blue car came up behind me (on the other side of the road) and asked me what I was doing “on this road.” She said she’s lived in Leeds her whole life and people like me “ruin everything” by going “where you don’t belong.” Initially I thought she was worried about me because cars drive too fast on that road (since it’s not posted, the speed limit is 40 but certainly people drive faster than that), but she said “the cars are fine, it’s people like you” and ended with “if you end up hurt or dead, I won’t feel sorry for you.” Geez. The road isn’t very long and it’s super-windy; driving fast would be dangerous for many reasons, like a deer in the road or a branch down. Plus it’s totally legal to ride a bike or walk/run along the road, but of course people like her believe roads are for cars only and not transportation generally. Anyway, I’m very conflict-averse and it really upset me even though I knew she was being a jerk. I had a hard time catching my breath and teared up a couple of times as the incident ran through my head, which I had trouble shutting down. It’s one of the very interesting things about running for me: negative thoughts have an immediate effect on my pace and my ability to run.
- So by the time I got to the Valley Bike stop at Northampton High School, and I’d passed 15.5, I was ready to pack it in and it was a breath of relief to be able to coast home!
I did spot one new weathervane for my collection. It’s a feather!
