August 2007 Archives

So I'm trying to make sense of the paces prescribed by Runners' World Smart Coach for my various training runs: Goal is 9:00 / mile for the marathon (finishing in under 4:00) ... and based upon a recent 10k race time you get other recommended paces. Mine worked out to 9:53 for easy runs; 8:15 for tempo runs; and between 6:53-7:26 (which seems out of reach for me right now) for speed work depending on the goal of the workout.

And last nights prescribed workout was surprisingly tough for me. So tough that I almost threw up after my first "hard" mile ... my target pace for the middle three miles was only 8:15 and I ought to have been able to handle that. Here are my stats (AHR was 133 & MHR was 159). I was in zone 4 most of the time, but that's not usually a "puke" zone for me. Admittedly I started too fast but still ...

8:34 warm up - 8:06 - 11:43 (felt sick & slowed to a walk) - 8:30 - 8:45.

It took me 10:29 to recover (heart rate below 90 bpm) which seemed long. In retrospect my nausea and near vomiting experience could have been related to a spicy and late lunch - I can only hope it wasn't a sign of things to come.

It is with some trepidation, and exitement that today I embark on my official first week of training for CIM on Dec. 2, 2007. Today was a 13 miler, not because that was what was necessarily prescribed, but because that's what I felt like running, with friend Juls, who was doing 20. It was the least I could do, and never let it be said that I don't do the least I can do!

Wharf to Wharf on July 22, 2007 - I ran with a friend of a friend from work ... it was the first time she had run more than 4 miles (the race is 6) ... her friends were actually trying to run for time, so they took off. But I had no plans to run hard or fast, so I paced her to the end, and had a truly fun experience doing it.

Other things I've been up to include ...

Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge - I did this ride with my husband on August 4th, 2007. He did the full century with 10,000 feet of climbing. I hadn't been training, and even when I did train my rides had been suckie (as you may recall from a previous post) ... so I was not inclined to suffer. I ended up doing 70 miles with 7,000 feet of climbing and it was just right. Then I waited ... and waited ... and waited ... for my darling husband to trudge to the finish line, where the burritos were being transferred into Take Away containers for the stragglers. He was NOT the last however ... there were at least three more riders behind him. To be fair, we DID start later than we should have. It was a beautiful day, my legs and cardio were both fine, and I ended up enjoying the ride very much.

Family Vacation in Breckenridge - The town is quaint in terms of it's many charming restaurants and shops; interesting in terms of its history; and breathtaking in terms of it's elevation. The town of Breckenridge sits at 9,603 feet. The summit of the ski area behind our lodge was at 12,998 feet! And I was itching to climb as high as possible ...

Now I have true empathy for asthma and allergy sufferers in a BIG way - it felt just awful not being able to get a satisfying breath of air, and to feel light headed every time you changed from a seated or lying position to standing. At night it felt as though we were sleeping with heavy weights on our chests. My brother's two teenage kids were constantly complaining of headaches of varying degrees of severity. Despite gasping for air the first few days, we all eventually acclimatized.

Day 1 we walked down into town and back up to the lodge ... a meager 1/2 mile or so with maybe 300 feet of elevation difference ... and that's all she wrote! Next day we hiked 5 miles to some alpine lakes. The gasping was worth it. Day 3 I attempted to run to the recreation center and back (less than four miles). It felt horrible, but I did it. Day 4 we shopped and wandered around town. Day 5 in the a.m. I ran 11.2 miles to the next town and then took the shuttle back. In the p.m. we rented bikes and rode 30 miles (out and back). Day 6 we biked 50 miles (out and back) to the Vail Pass at 10,600 feet. Day 7 I hiked to the top of a ski lift behind our lodge, and then ran down the "easy" ski trails. I tried not to let the elevation get the better of me. In fact I relished the challenge of overcoming the discomfort - I think I am a closet masochists. Or maybe just a masochist.

My conscious won't let me rest. I can't shake this image from my mind, and I can't seem to let myself off the hook either. I have never felt so touched by another human being as I did this man. And I don't even know who he is. And I'll never see him again. It was one of those fleeting moments in one's life where you "see" everything there is to see about a person and you feel exactly what they are feeling, for an instant.

But that instant stays with you a long time after you've parted ways. We connected, but we never spoke. We connected, through one gesture, a sigh. His sigh. He had a sign in his hands that read, "Need work. Please help." He was older than me, but probably not by much. He was standing tall and appeared very self-assured, almost proud, for someone who was begging. The image was incongruous and it just didn't fit together in my head. He was dressed nicely in khaki pants with a Casablanca style broad brimmed hat to match, and a clean, unwrinkled blue long-sleeved button down shirt. His shoes were the kind you see older people wearing, the type that are billed as "walking shoes" because they have good arch supports.