The Running Diva

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

OCal had me take a day off yesterday and do an icing in the ocean instead. I brought a book this time, and stood waist deep, reading. I got a few odd looks but I didn’t care.

I ran easy 30 minutes at Cedar hill early this morning and did some light stretching afterwards. My legs feel much better this week compared to last. I think they’re getting used to the routine again and having yesterday off and Kimmy’s work on me also helped.

We were supposed to run at the UVic track tonight but there was a meet going on so we switched venues and went to Oak Bay. There was a gusty wind tonight but at least it was fairly warm. OCal ran the warm-up with me, Dave and Ased. He is having us run the warm-up slower than what we have been doing so we shuffled along, running to Willow’s Beach and back. Prancy showed up having run from UVic and so did Chops who was just there for support. He is giving himself an easy week before ramping it up again for the summer.

The session tonight was 5 x 1km with 2 minutes rest…that changed to 90 seconds after the first km much to our horror. I didn’t care - I was determined to stay relaxed and to suck it up when it got painful…and that’s what I did. I led the first lap of the first km and hit my target per lap right on in 80″. Ased then moved into the lead and slowed up a bit (I think he was afraid of killing me!).  I knew we were going a bit too slowly. The first was 3:26. I was supposed to be aiming for 3:20 but at least it did feel easy. I held steady on the next one as Ased moved ahead and ran his own pace. This one was much better in 3:21. I was still feeling ok but I knew things would change soon. The next one started to feel nasty after just 200m, 3:22.  I hit another 3:22 on the fourth. I was looking ragged on that one and the recovery time was feeling like 10 seconds. Going into the final one I was still breathing hard so there was some major wheezing going on in the last 600m, 3:24. OCal hopped into the second lap of the last two kms to help me out…thank Gawd! I was potted (as OCal would say) and lay on the grass for a minute or two. I didn’t hit my targets but was close and I was pleased I didn’t give up even though I was hurting. I hope I am over the mental hump. I just need to get my lungs back in shape. Chops was excellent support, jogging to and fro on the infield, giving me my 200m splits. That was a big help too. Ased glided through the repeats and Prancy had a good session too. Dave did another wo and managed to nail his times. He and I jogged to Willow’s afterwards and stood in the ocean for ten minutes. The time goes by much faster when you have someone to chat with!