And Everything Turned Out Better Than Expected... mostly...

Had a planned run with K this morning. Just met her; she's cool. We try to run once a week. The route we run has basically stayed the same. It's been about 3.1 miles. A bit hilly, but only one brutal one. I like it because the smaller hills push you (well, me) just enough so I know that I'm really getting my hill muscles built up, but not so much that I have to stop.

Well, that's not entirely true; last time, and I think the time before, I had to stop and walk a couple of times, because of dehydration (mild) and stuff. Last time it was just awful. This time, all good... well, mostly - we'll get to that in a minute.

So, usually we go along this 2-lane country road that sort of ends in a gate. It doesn't really end because you can slip past the gate. But we haven't, until today. The road sweeps down at a pretty steep .22~ mile hill, which is nice as you're going down, because you get a nice break. So, we went past the gate; there's a little hill there, which I had to walk about 3/4 of the way up. My calves were starting to feel really sore (thus the mostly... I hate having to walk!). Ran down that little hill to a big hill...where we turned around. I ran up the other side of the little hill, ran again, walked a bit since I could not make it up the .22 mile hill... unfortunately... it's quite steep! But after that, I was mostly good. Had to walk a couple more times, but really focused on pushing myself further than last time, and getting a better time.

Lately, I've had a hard time pushing myself and dealing with legs getting sore, labored breathing, just psychological "do-not-want-to-run" laziness, mostly, and having a hard time getting through that on my runs. I love to run! I just am not used to it yet, I guess... My brain isn't used to physical, athletic challenge. I'll get better though! This time, it was easier!

I want to talk about those burning calves for a minute, though. They are just not up to multiple hills! I mean, the hills on this run were there, but (except for that one) they aren't severe. On my 'normal' route, I have 2 hills, one of which I repeat. The first is kind of steep, but not really, and is about .5 miles. Perhaps a touch less. The second is quite short, but quite, quite steep. This is the one I do twice on my normal 3 mile runs. I can do these okay without my calves giving out too bad, but apparently I still need to build up strength because the repeating hills (about 6 maybe, counting the fact that you have to go up them twice) is really getting to me! So, if anyone knows of any good non-running exercises to really target those muscles, let me know! I really want to be able to do hills without my legs feeling like they're on fire when I'm done.

So, the run was 3.56 miles long. Break down:

Warm Up: Lunge Matrix
Mile 1: 12:06 pace
2: 12:55
3: 16:42 (The mile I walked a lot... blegh)
Last .56 miles: 12:11 pace (took 6:46 to do this bit)

Total time: 48:31. Not fast, but descent, well, for me at least, and with the consistancy of pace and all. K is really good at keeping a fairly even pace, which I appreciate a lot... also having someone right there, running with me, is a good incentive to not stop when my mind is saying "Come on! Just walk for a minute!"

Long run tomorrow. 6 miles. Because I didn't get it in on Sunday. I know this is kind of a bad idea, especially since it will be sandwiched between 2 run days. I know I'm pushing it. I'm trying to keep my nutritional and physical stresses (the bad kind!) down as much as possible (though I do have my weaknesses...) so that my recovery is high quality.

So, all in all, excellent day! I really like getting runs done early (although I tend to have a hard time getting up in the morning...) because it makes the rest of the day nice. Residue of the 'feel good' hormones from exercise, I guess! Either way, I'm happy.