Average Adventure Addict

Here at the end of our first 3 weeks of training, I have noticed 3 things:

1) our time running the Observatory hill is starting to drop significantly, even tho it still feels slow!
2) I am back to running 5 min km (yay! now I can work on trying to sustain sub 5 min km!)
3) I am tired all the time and have been napping rather than doing my weight workouts! I have hit 2 of the last 7 workouts.. bad bad bad!

This is also the most time Kitt and I have ever spent training together, ever! The dogs are loving the daily (and sometimes twice daily) runs. As a result Guinness has been eating like horse, gained almost 10 pounds (most of it solid muscle in his hind end) and grown 3 inches taller at the shoulder. He tries to use his new found strength when he play fights with Panda but the old girl has experience and the upper hand still!

I had my first group run in ages on Wednesday night with the Broadmead Running Room. It was so much fun! People of all ages, levels and distances came out, and best of all, dogs are allowed! It being our first time and wanting to make a good, friendly impression, I opted to take Guinness (friendly with other dogs) rather then Panda (not friendly with other dogs). I was really nervous when I got there, about 50 people turned up in total and some of them looked like they could really school everyone on the pavement!! I hooked up with half-marathon group (my original intention was to run for at least 60 minutes) and discovered we were doing a 10 minute warmup and 20 minute tempo run over 6km. Oh well, not everything goes to plan!

The run went really well, I tried to hang onto the group leaders, Guinness ran head first into a pole (he’s ok!), felt ‘comfortably uncomfortable’ for the first 15 minutes, then shocked the hell out of myself when we came to the hills and I surged up it and ran hard for the last 3 km without looking back. I felt so good at the end! Even tho I have been so tired and lethargic this week I managed to turn out my best feeling run in the last 5 months! Yay the training is working!! I have to now discipline myself to run with my pack all the time, not just for the long slow runs!

Okay, when you’ve been a complete idiot it’s only fair to share it on Facebok!! Since I discovered MapMyRun.com last month I have been a route-planning fiend, mapping all my favorite routes, sometimes smiling when my times have been quick, and not smiling when they have been sluggish. The last 3 weeks Kitt and I have gotten back into the swing of training and Saturday is traditionally a long, rolly kind of workout. The only problem was that I worked all day yesterday and didn’t see how I was going to squeeze in an ‘outside’ workout as opposed to an hour on the treadmill at the gym.

As I drove home on my break to let the dogs out, I had a brain wave: If I ran home from work, it would be my 60 minute workout for the day, and then tomorrow I could run to work and that would take care of my long run. I thought I was a genius! I quickly threw my pack and clothes together, remembered about mapping the route and half-heartedly mapped it, not really paying attention. Big problem to be discussed later!! I only glanced at the screen, saw the number 10 and assumed it was kilometres. I got back to work and couldn’t wait to go home and kill the commute and training all in one foul swoop!! My co-workers questioned my sanity, and some even went as far as smirking at my plan to run in the dark and pouring rain, but I was determined!

7pm came, I was changed and ready to go. Kitt even drove and dropped off Guinness for company. Pack on, flashers flashing and headlamp on, we left with high hopes and spring in our step! Based on the map I had certain sections and markers of the Goose trail that I wanted to hit at certain times. The first 3km came and went nice and evenly and I didn’t look at my watch. It seemed to take a long time to reach the halfway mark that I had set, based on the map, so I looked at my watch, 30 minutes!! Holy Crap!! I knew I had taken it a little easy in the start (head cold + first run with a pack + new dog just getting fit) but this was ridiculous!! I couldn’t believe that I was that slow!! Being in total denial, I picked up the pace and started to really push. So much for a nice 60 minute LSD run! I was positive that I must have gone backwards at some point I was going so slowly! Poor little Guinness started the run in front, then half way thru he was at my side, then the last little bit, he was behind. I never dragged him but I did stop a few times to check his paws. This was his longest run to date and I was sure he’d sleep for hours and hours when we got home!

Kitt met me at the Switch Bridge (we had talked about possibly changing from Guinness to Panda at this point so both dogs got a run) and I was staring in amazement at my watch: 60 minutes!! This was supposed to be the 2/3 mark of a 10km run!! I felt like a sack of crap! When I met Kitt I was in disbelief – I cycled to work on this route and that took me 40 minutes, I must have read the map wrong! I pulled the plug at that point, planned workout completed, and lifted a tired puppy into the back of the truck and went home with Kitt.

Sure enough, when I got home, there was my route, on the computer in MILES not kms!! I looked at where I got to, the 10 KM point and started to laugh at my very rookie mistake – I think that’s the last time Kitt will let me navigate on my own! All in all, it was a great run and I was really happy considering all the other factors (sick, dog, rainy and cold conditions). So, it was only natural to post my sheepish status on Facebook so everyone else could have a laugh too! It was funny this morning tho, Kitt asked me what I wanted to do: run to work or run stairs with 12lb packs? 15 sets of 8 flights of stairs later, my vibrating calves make me wish I’d run to work!!