Women's training thread - week of 6/1/08

You did awesome Humbled. I know you probably hear it all the time, but you are so courageous and I love to hear how you are doing.

I stuck with my double trck workouts this week, now adding some strength things to my training. Since I helped with my husbands team this year I have forgone my own racing and it is possible it is just too late to do some great stuff racing wise living in the MidWest makes for little opportunities, but there are some meets to get into so we will see. Would still like to go to nationals. speed is doing very well - in fact my 25 year old sprint partner is no longer able to pull away from me, I have finally caught up to her!

Our track team is advancing 12 individuals to the state meet this weekend, most are distance runners which is a tribute to the very structured program my husband had for them this year. I am excited for all of them.

have a good week everyone. Keep this thread alive.

I had the same thought the other day as I was blowing a snot rocket and another runner came along. No judgment...

My training's going well. I'm building up a base for my fall marathon in October. Went from around 82 miles last week to 88 this week, with a tempo run, a fast easy run and a 20 miler to boot. I'm happy with my paces right now, although I need to get a lot faster over the coming four months. It'll happen, one run at a time.

But I am tired today! Next week's a recovery week, although I may run the Mini 10K in Central Park next weekend. I don't think I can pass up the chance to run in the same race with some of my hero(in)es.

I for one am glad you're keeping this thread alive.

Midweek bump . . .

Pfitz Pfan, what fall marathon are you looking at? If you do run the 10K next week, good luck! (And please, tell us about it afterward.) I've always wanted to run (or at least watch) that race, but the timing has never worked out.

16x, thanks again for the kind words. It's weird to be described as brave, because I really don't feel as though I have much choice in the matter. (Other than becoming totally non-functional, which isn't very appealing.)

On a slightly snarky note (and even though this thread is always supportive and positive, we wouldn't be coming to letsrun if we didn't enjoy the occasional snicker, would we?): one of the things that made last Saturday's race so much fun was having the opportunity to pass all of these corporate team guys in the final mile. You know - the office champions who feel like hot stuff for running the first couple of miles at a blazing 6-something pace? Then walk/jog in (except, of course, for that mighty sprint to the finish)? I was so happy to be able to give them the experience of being passed by a 47-year-old BALD woman!

That's a great story! They probably weren't talking all that much about that on Monday at the office, hehehe.

In regards to bravery Humbled, most of the time you don't go looking for bravery, but it just finds you. Most people would not be brave enough to get out the door for a run each day, let alone going to a race and then losing their hair piece! no way sister, it takes a certain amount of courage to do that, and a need to live as normally as possible during this time.

humbled, while i agree with 16x's consideration of bravery/courage, another way of thinking about it is as inspiration. indeed you are inspiring to the rest of us whose daily challenges are small in comparison and have your determination and positive attitude to look at as a model. in short, you rock. and congratulations on blowing away the young studs in the final mile, particularly with no hair for the breeze to be blowing through.

and, 16x, i definitely hand it to you on your coaching prowess and success of your athletes, as well as your personal efforts at getting fast.

as for me, i've been quite happy with the slow-and-steady thing. a week and a half ago i successfully ran my own race and didn't get caught up in anyone else's pace in an event that had five different distances competing simultaneously on the same 20K trail course: 10K, 25K, 50K, 50 mile, and 100 mile. i was in the 50 miler, which began with the 100 milers, and i spent about an hour running with the crowd of 25K-ers, as well. easy math indicates that i had to run four 20K loops, and i was very happy with my even pacing loop after loop. while i managed to pull off a sub-8-hour win on the tame trail with ~6500' of accumulated elevation gain, i was most pleased with the splits (1:56, 2:00, 2:00, 1:59 (these are hr:min)), going very easy for loops 1, 2, and 3, and giving it my all in the final go-round.

i took it easy in the following days and then played around in a short (6.7 mi) local trail race a week later (this past saturday) and found myself still able to place one foot ahead of the other, and faster than i have on this course previously, which was also nice. here i finished third woman, all masters, with the other two head-and-shoulders faster than i am -- anytime, anywhere, any distance -- which, provides yet another source of continual inspiration.

it's looking like summer here in the northeast, with loads of greens ready to harvest in the vegetable garden and temps expected to tickle 90 this weekend. should provide a good impetus to continue practicing with different water bottle configurations and find one to carry me through next month's 50 miler.