Awesome run

Today my plan was to do hill repeats and I did some but ended up combining it with a tempo run - felt great, but I can tell I have a lot of work to do.

Need to say a bit more about this run. I took Daisy and she did pretty well. Ran around the UNC campus and out onto the football field, where I unleashed her. Woo hoo - it was fun watching her leap over snow drifts and plough through really deep sections of snow. She rolled and jumped and skidded on slick parts and let her inner-puppy go. It was worth it just to watch her!

I charged up the hill as fast as I could, avoiding the slick parts as much as possible. The hill was still snow-covered and because of all the sledding that had gone on last week, much of it was really slick. But one thing I'm good at is running on ice and snow!  I leaped and slid around just like Daisy but never fell. In fact, I did 7 hill repeats and managed to stay afloat the whole time.

I was pleasantly surprised to feel little fatigue after doing the hill repeats. I could tell Daisy was tired and thirsty so I decided to run her back home and then do a tempo run. We leaped over more snow drifts and ice patches to get home - woo hoo - we made it!

I left her at home and took off on my own. Circled around to 23rd Ave and then down to 25th street. There, I had a long open stretch of bike lane on a street with little traffic. Once in the lane, I let it rip - took off as fast as I could in four 2-minute surges. Whew, that was tough!

I definitely need more speedwork. I think Tuesdays will be my hill/speedwork day. The only problem is that I start teaching next Tuesday at UNC. My class is at 9:30 and the kids need to be up by 7:10 so it will need to be an early run on the treadmill...I might need to re-think this schedule!  More on that later.

During my run, I thought about all the running I did back in Caribou, Maine, in the late 80's. I didn't have anyone to run with back then and Ipods weren't even around then. I did all of my runs alone with no music - how did I do that?! 

I remember many, many long solor runs in the Maine woods. Many late night runs on the SAC air force base I was living on with temps below zero (seriously!).  I remember going out my door about 7:00 PM in the still, darkness with the air being so cold that it burned my face and legs while I ran. But I kept going for some odd reason.

Now, I look back on that experience and feel thankful for having that experience. I became a very hardy runner living up there. My first marathon was in Montreal and I trained for 9 months by myself, starting from scratch. I remember running my first 15 mile run - a story I'll save for later - but I couldn't believe that I had run that far. Now, I can't believe I ran that far by  myself without music or aid stations!

I'm proud of myself for not giving up. There were many times I was cold, wet, and lonely for conversation but I just kept going. Just like I am now...except now I have a dog, Ipod, gu in my backpocket, and a group of wonderful friends to support me. Life is good!