So much has happened in these past few weeks. The trails are finally cleared of snow, the bears are awake, speed work has been added to my running schedule, my running partner quit, and I entered the London lottery.
We will start with my running partner (the husky-looking pup above). Thor has always been excited to go on the run with me, and he has been a great running dog. I typically do a warm-up, get him in his harness, and then we do a short walk before we start running. But now, all of a sudden, he lies down on the trail and refuses to run when it is time to start running (believe me, I get it, haha). The first time this happened, I tried encouraging him, and he was fine as long as he could sniff and pee on everything, but not much into running. I took him on another run a week later, and the same thing happened again. So, I am bummed that he doesn’t want to run with me. Raina, the other pup above, is not into running a nice easy pace; she likes to do short sprints and rest. I really miss him on my runs.
Recently, I started a run (without Thor), and I was about a quarter mile into the run when a vehicle stopped next to me. The driver let me know there were two grizzlies just around the corner (not even another quarter mile from me). Yikes! Of course, I changed my route.
I considered running the Eagle River Nature Center Trails, but this warning sign was still in place. Even though it was a few weeks ago, I didn’t want to risk it by myself.
So, I drove into Anchorage and ran the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. The trail was finally free of snow. I had tried running there not that long ago, and the snow was still fairly deep. The views were awesome!
This is the view of the hill that I am doing repeats on.
I am actually excited to do speed work. The slow, easy runs become pretty boring after a while. The week before I started the hill repeats, I was doing strides in the middle of one of my runs. Since that went well, Coach Laura said I was ready for hill repeats. I did 8 x 45-sec mod-hard the first week with a 1.5-minute recovery jog down. Regardless of my effort, running uphill is just hard! There is no moderate about it. But I did it! Then, the following week, I did 6 x 1-minute mod-hard with a 2-minute jog down. These 1-minute runs took me almost to the top of that hill, and I tried maintaining a consistent pace, but these were even harder than the previous week. Still, I managed to complete them. The 2-mile cool-down afterward was at a much slower pace than usual.
Even though these hill repeats are hard, I am happy that I can do them. They have so many benefits when training for a marathon.
- They help to perfect your running form.
- They can reduce your risk of injury (this was news to me – but this type of training places less stress on your joints and ligaments than most flat-ground running drills).
- They can help quicken stride and increase stride length.
- They build strength in the leg muscles.
This week, my workout plan includes 8 x 1-minute hill repeats on Wednesday and strides on Thursday. This will be the first time in years that I have done two speed sessions in one week. However, the other day, when Thor wouldn’t run, I had to leave him in the car because I didn’t want to go all the way home and come back (I can’t run close to home because of the bears). Anyway, because I had to leave him, I was really worried about him so subconsciously or consciously, I don’t know, but I ended up running a tempo run that wasn’t planned. I didn’t want to leave him by himself for too long. The other days of the week have been easy runs, with a long run on Saturday. My long run is at 10 miles right now. Marathon training starts next month.
I entered the London Marathon Lottery. If you live in the US, the only way to enter the London Marathon is through the lottery, a tour operator, or a charity. I am going the lottery route for now, even though I only have a 2-3 percent chance of getting in. My understanding is that only 17000 runners are picked from the US. With more than 840,000 total ballot entries, I have a slim to no chance. But it is worth a try.
So much for the running updates. Let’s move on to the really important stuff. My granddaughter had a concert that we attended last week. She plays the cello, and she did awesome. She is participating in another concert at her school this week. I can’t wait to go. We had so much fun, and then we had dinner afterward. So proud of her!
Tylor received an award in ROTC!
And Charlie sang her heart out at her kindergarten concert.
I have the best grandkids!! Love them all so much!!
Stay tuned for more running updates – keeping my fingers crossed for warmer weather – and more family fun times.
HAPPY RUNNING
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