CONFIDENCE BOOST

It turns out an easy morning run makes my legs feel awesome for my evening group workout. Tonight we met at the 740 apartment building near the Ford Plant. Our route was basically out-and-back (south) on East River Road.

After a warm-up we did 4 repeats of a “massive” hill leading down to the Mississippi River. Like everything else, hill size is relative. For around here, it was a pretty long and steep hill – one that kicked my ass. During the warm-up I ran with Jenna and Joyce. Once we got to the hill, I quickly fell behind. I like to think it’s because I’m carrying around these huge muscles but it’s probably because I haven’t run hill repeats in a long time.

After getting my ass kicked and being left in the dust, I continued south along East River Road by myself. If you remember my post from this morning, there was a strong wind out of the north. The wind was still strong and it made this section of the workout a breeze (pun intended). After the hill repeats I wanted to hit the lap button so I knew when to turn around. Of course, I hit the stop button by accident and didn’t discover it until about 15 minutes later.

Luckily Jenna and Joyce were soon heading back and I was able to latch onto them. It was nice having company – especially into the wind. After a few minutes Joyce fell behind while Jenna and I continued on at a decent (probably 7:00-pace, give or take 10 seconds) clip. Not sure if she knows it or not, but Jenna gave me a huge confidence boost when she said I must be running a lot of miles. I assume she meant because I was keeping up with her – and still able speak fairly coherently. So, either 1) she sees some improvements or 2) she’s reading my blog or both.

The only problem with this run is that Jenna and Joyce had to turn around early because the path was icy. That’s not a big deal, but it meant running passed our start/finish line and adding another 20 minutes or so to the run. There’s something about passing the finish line and knowing you have to keep going that is a mental kick in the pants. But I survived – 10 miles with 4 hills in 71 minutes.