Goodbye, Charlie

1997 - 2009
I'll miss you, Charlie-man.

Me versus The Hill: Week 3

Tonight I ran the Horrible Hill route by myself! Running partner E. was busy last night, so of course I put off going for a run. I almost put it off again tonight, but finally, after I procrastinated a bit, I kicked myself out the door. That's a small triumph right there.

Then, I was tempted to run a different route and avoid The Hill. But no! I will conquer this route by the end of summer. And alas, the only way to conquer it is to actually run it. Another small triumph.

So off I went, peering warily at the ominous clouds. It looked like the sky was considering falling, but luckily, the rain mostly held off until the end of the run. And the sky did not actually fall, so that's good, too.

As far as how the run went, I discovered that it is more enjoyable not to be struggling to keep up with running partner E. At no point did I feel the need to keel over as I tried to catch my breath. However, the fact that I wasn't pushing myself as hard definitely showed up in my time.

• Last week: 45:36


• This week: 46:03

But, I definitely felt that I did better on the hills. I employed the strategy suggested by Ted of taking very small steps when running up hills. On the Horrible Hill, it actually felt like I was running up stairs. I think this definitely helped, as this week I made it at least 3/4 of the way to the top before stopping to walk. So thanks, Ted! And I ran most of the way up the hill at the end too!

Hills, I will conquer you!

Overall, definite improvements toward my goal of running the Horrible Hill route in its entirety. We'll see how next week goes when I'm once again trying to keep up with E.

Two Weeks of Success

My running goal for May is to run three times each week. I'm at the half-way point now and so far, success!

The first week was tough. Running partner E. and I ran our regular Tuesday evening run, but then I procrastinated and was faced with having to run on both Saturday and Sunday if I wanted to accomplish my goal. I managed to get myself out for a run on Saturday, but running partner E. wasn't free for our regular Sunday run. Having only internal motivation to get me out and running two days in a row almost resulted in a fail for the week. But I persevered, and did squeek out a rather pitiful 2+ mile run late in the day Sunday.

With my 6 mile run this morning (with E.) I finished out a successful week 2. Horray! This morning's run was completed in just under 1:16, which averages out to about a 12:24 min/mile pace. Again, I'm apparently very consistent. This is almost exactly my time for this same route three weeks ago, before the Great Edinburgh Run.

I was able to keep up with running partner E. through about mile 4, before having to slow down. One thing I'm hoping is that the more consistent 3x/week running will help me get a bit faster to better keep up with E. Because even running just two days a week, she is getting quite speedy! Of course, E. also likes to push herself with sprints and by running faster up hills, hence, her speed demon qualities. Ah well, we'll see at the end of the month if there's a glimmer of hope that the increased mileage is having an effect.