SOLID WEEKEND

I had a solid weekend of training, starting with a group hill workout on Saturday morning. We started out on the aptly named, James J. Hill library, stairs. After 20 minutes we ran on this other hill that is right near the stairs. It starts out gradual, levels off, then gets steeper near the end. Finally, we ended on Ramsey hill which basically goes from the Interstate up to Summit Avenue. I’d guess it’s a good 3 minute climb.

During the cooldown, I was trying to think of a harder group workout from last year and I couldn’t come up with any. The thing with this workout is that there’s no rest between the hills since they’re all so close together. Usually we run on a hill for awhile and then jog on the flats for awhile as we head to the next hill. All told, I ran 1:45 and called it 14 miles for the day and 74 for the week.

That evening our coach had a party at his new training facility in St. Paul. Jenna brought some friends including Dave, who ran at the U of MN in the mid-70s with guys like Garry Bjorklund and Steve Plasencia. A quick google search turns up this gem on Plasencia by Scott Douglas. The only problem with the party is that there aren’t any chairs – just bikes. So I ended up spending about 4 hours on my feet. That’s not ideal after a hill workout and before a long run. Neither was only getting 6 hours of sleep.

On Sunday there was this big yellow ball in the sky. It was bright, it was warm and I liked it. I hope it comes back again some day – soon. I was planning on a 20 mile run, but made the mistake of stopping by my house after about 18 miles. It was a little windier than I expected and I was a little underdressed, so I thought I’d run my last 20 minutes on the treadmill. Somewhere on my way to the treadmill I started to eat a snack, then I was in the shower and finally I was napping in front of the TV.

I wasn’t too heartbroken about cutting this run short. The adage says to finish the run feeling like you could have done more. Given the hills and lack of sleep, I don’t think I could have gone much longer. The fact that I needed a nap is usually a pretty good indicator to me that I’ve done enough.

Quote of the day:
“Hills: You entered a marathon with hills? You idiot.” Don Kardong