A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Eat and Run



Monday night was the running club's "Run of the Month" which pretty much means running followed by eats at a local restaurant. This month's choice? The place pictured above. Of course, it wasn't quite nice enough to sit outside nor is it quite so green yet.

The weather was, however, definitely spring-like. My running buddy showed up and a few miles into the run we were joined by a gentleman who apparently used to run with the group quite often. He claimed he hadn't run in a year and yet he was still keeping pace with us at our 9-minute pace!

Speaking of pace, this week is supposed to be my "easy" week. But, as always, it doesn't seem to matter if I try to go fast or slow, my pace on Monday nights is about the same. And I'm STILL at the back of the pack. Oh well. Sometimes chasing rabbits is a good thing.

Monday night's run felt tough, though. I think my awesome runs last week gave way to some tired legs and tired lungs. I'm also realizing that I do much better when I rest two days in between runs. Guess I'll have to remember to do that before my half marathon!

After the run a large group of us headed to the restaurant and I think we overwhelmed the staff. They put up with us, though, and I ended up having enough of my dinner left over to take for lunch, too. I love having leftovers. Makes for no-brainer lunch packing :-)

And you know what, I'm going to take that back about being at the very back of the pack. Here's an example of the range of people we have in our group who were at dinner on Monday night. Exhibit A is Charles. He's running Boston in a few weeks. This is will be his fourth time running it. Exhibit B is Ken. Ken not only drives practically 30 minutes to run with our group, but he's an average 6 hour marathoner. He does run/walk and he's almost always by himself during the group runs. He's technically the back of the pack and he never, ever complains. He's super-proud of his accomplishments and doesn't care at all that people are faster than him. I rather admire that, actually. Then we've got the triathletes and the people who can carry on a conversation while running an 8:30 pace.

So, yeah, quite the variation. But we all love good food. And a glass of wine. Or beer. It's a good group and I'm glad I found them.

********************


Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:628 ft
Location:Forest Park, ILElev. Gain:+3 ft
Date:03/29/10Up/Downhill: [+22/-19]
Time:06:36 PMDifficulty:2.4 / 5.0
 
Weather:Mostly Cloudy
 40 F temp; 64% humidity
 40 F heat index; winds E 5
Performance

Distance: 5.49 miles
Time:0:49:50
Speed:6.6 mph
Pace:9' 05 /mi
Calories:650
Map
 
Elevation (ft)
 
Pace (min/mile)
 
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
18' 33-0' 327.0+0.40 ft
29' 09+0' 046.5-0.1-9 ft
39' 08+0' 036.6-0.0+3 ft
49' 03-0' 026.6+0.0+7 ft
59' 20+0' 156.4-0.20 ft
end9' 19+0' 146.4-0.2+3 ft
Versus average of 9' 05 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

2 comments:

kristen said...

I'm glad you found them too!!
I definitly need to take a hint from Ken and not compare myself so much to others.

I just scrolled through your last few posts and saw your splits for that 8.5 miler. WOW - nice splits. Hopefully I can hold a similar pace for a 10k this weekend.

kilax said...

Steven was talking about how he thinks he needs two days before long runs... I think that does help for feeling fresh! How many rest days do you have during the week of the half? Are you going to try to get more rest that week too? (I know some people recommend that).

Running and dinner with a great group of people sounds like an awesome way to start to week. I hope I get to meet some of them when I volunteer at the race!

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.