7 Miles With the Team

Untitled by anjil1206 at Garmin Connect - Details

Ran seven miles with Team In Training in Atascadero yesterday. The course had nice rollers that challenged me. But I handled pretty well. My pace was good. I ended up with a sub 14:00 average moving pace even with the hills. That is good for me. Especially this early in the season! :) (Click the link above to see the route and stats).

I love rollers because when you go up a hill you get to recover on a downhill piece. I knew the course was an out and back so every downhill piece would be an uphill piece on the way back. On the way down a long piece, I realized it was going to be a bear of an uphill on the way back. So I looked across the road at the side that I would be running back up and said out loud, "I'll be back for you! You wait here I'll be back to do you soon!"

This is why I don't mind running solo. I imagine people would think me odd to see me talking to the road. But that's what I do. I will talk to myself, the cancer patients I run for, the road, a tree along the route. Whatever. Speaking out loud is motivating for me. Don't worry, I do understand these are inanimate objects and they never talk back. Well, usually. If they ever do talk back, I know I am working too hard and I slow down. :)

So on the way back, I saw that bear of a piece looming in front of me. "I'm baaaaaack!"I said as I stepped onto the base of the hill and began pounding my way up. I did my best with my posture, pumping my arms, and breathing right. I did pretty well, but half way up I felt the hill winning. I did my best but I had to stop and walk a few steps. As soon as I could, I started running again to the top. In my book, if I can't get up a hill without walking then the hill wins. So that hill got me. But I only walked a few steps and kept going. So it's not like it won 50 - 2. It only won 50 - 49. Not bad. Besides, we'll be back another day and I'm confident that hill is going down next time! :)

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I run; you donate. Deal?

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