Hillies, hillies, hillies

Today was intended to be a hill-work day, then a hike with my dad. But with the powers of schedule changing, we combined them into one.

Before I did my workout, I jogged the two miles to Noon Hill. This was, for some reason, not as easy as it sounds.

I jogged down the street leading to the turn for Noon Hill. After about twenty minutes, I thought that I must have missed the turn (I had passed a street a little less than a quarter mile earlier that I thought might be the right street), so I turned around and jogged back.

But I found out that the street I was heading back to was not the right street at all, and I had originally been heading in the correct direction.

Confusing? Most likely.

Finally I turned back around and continued on, finally finding the correct street and meeting my dad at the base of the hill.

Me and my dad started off together, then I sprinted for about 100 yards up Noon Hill, turned around and met my dad where he had walked to, and sprinted up another hundred yards, returned, sprinted, returned...

I think you got the idea there. I did this 11 times, for I would have done 11 repeats of my hill had I not done this.

It was quite enjoyable, and this also marks the first hike for me this year! W00T!

Tap-dancing, jumping, splashing, tripping, slogging and running

Another Tri Valley FrontRunners amenity is their summer trail race series. This includes a five mile run around a dam, through trails, over bridges and through sand. Our club president had it right when she said, “Expect everything. Because you will see everything.”

Even though my Monday run was a good tempo pace, today’s race was scheduled to be the one for my weekly tempo run.

I sped off, tap-dancing around rocks and roots, jumping over gaping holes, splashing through water, tripping through grass, slogging through sand and running the nice flat parts as fast as I could to get my time back down to where I wanted it.

The course was incredible. And even though I was working hard through the run, I was still able to enjoy myself and figuratively “stop to smell the roses.”

One thing that kept me going was entries for my blog running through my head, and the quote “Running is life, and therefore should be enjoyed as such.” And enjoy it I did.

There is really no more satisfying a feeling than enjoying a run to the fullest and going at a good pace through it. i.e. making something that usually isn’t too much fun into something wonderful.

Keep it up!

~Darkness

WH00T! XC-AGE!

WHOOT!! XC is approaching fast, eh? Today was... possibly one of the first days of XC Captains practice.

As far as it being the first day, I don’t think it was for the girls. Apparently there had been others, but I’m not certain.

We all started off, watches at the ready, and immediately everyone started chatting to one another. I doubt there was a point in the entire run where someone wasn’t saying something. ;-) Ah, XC, how I’ve missed the.

We came in in about 31 minutes. According to my teammate, we had gone 3.5, a lot longer than the beginning of last years practices! Those were about two miles long.

So it looks as if we have a good team this year, hopefully us sophomores can keep our varsity spot from last year, and maybe some new talent will come in in the form of new sophomores and freshmans.

Till next time!

~Darkness

Pace yourself, dood

I don’t believe that I have mentioned this, but I am a member of the Tri-Valley FrontRunners (TVFR) running club! (http://www.tri-valleyfrontrunners.com/) On Monday evenings they host a trail run in Hopedale park. The course is a measured three-mile loop, and participants may do as many loops as the desire.

I desired 2 loops.

I ran with our club coach, Larry Legend. The course was so beautiful and everyone was having so much fun, that I didn’t realize that I was going about 8:20 pace! The same pace I did on Saturday and killed myself, and this was one mile longer.

So it’s pretty much all in how you approach it. If you go into the race just to do something that isn’t really easy for you, you’re not going to have much fun. But if you go into a race to have fun (a god running partner helps a lot too), then you will.

Maybe that isn’t always going to happen, but it’s worth a shot, eh?

Slogging Kerlumpers

Yay! Another road race! In fact, another 5-mile road race: the Sharon Five.

And God said, “Let there be rain!” And there was rain. And rain. And rain.

In fact so much that large lakes started forming in the middle of the roads. One was so large that it stretched across the entire road itself! Some of the runners ran through it (myself included), but some cut through resident’s yards to avoid the “puddle”. But for me, my shoes were already 50 pounds heavier than normal, so I decided a little extra water wasn’t going to do much.

Being that I’m 14 and turning 15 soon, this was probably one of the last races I’d ever get in the top three in my age bracket for 50 years or so.

But today I was having fun jogging in the rain. But to my surprise, I got first in my age group! Awesome! Though I have to soak it all in now before my birthday!

Keep truckin’
~Darkness

Git your teeth and bare it

What is today, you ask? Today is the day of the weekly Fresh Pond 2.5 and 5-mile race.

It was cool and raining, perhaps a tad humid as well. But the fact that the race looped a pond (once for 2.5, twice for 5) and was under the cover of trees made the humidity bearable.

A beautiful race, certainly. But it is inevitable that one will one day have a bad run. One that makes you feel as if you shouldn’t be out there, that you suck or are too injured to continue. For me, it was the last.

My knees were pretty bad today, and I unfortunately let that get to me. I lost focus quickly on, but still managed to run the race at the right tempo, quite surprisingly. But, it hurt. And not just physically. If you loose focus in any run or start dwelling on something, it hurts mentally.

But we all must have these days, and we all will. There’s no avoiding them, you just have to grit your teeth and know that it will be over. It’s only a race, and it will end soon.

I would try to put in a peppy suggestion on how to conquer it, but the same thing doesn’t work for everyone. Replaying songs in my head that I’ve memorized sometimes works, but not always. Sometimes you just have to get through it.

Happy Kerlumpers

Speed work day! Woot!

...Er... not really. You might say that I have slow-twitch muscles. Slow-twitch so slow, that they might not even show up on the speed scale.

But, I came, I saw I conquered. ... sort of.

My first run was a fun run (4.1 miles) with my friend. It was quite warm, but not unbearably so.

I finished my run by jogging down to the football field for my speed work: Striders. 10 of them.

My goal was to do 10 100-yard striders (run to the 20-yard-line, sprint to the next twenty, decelerate to the other end-zone), and do them all in less than 20 seconds. I hit nine out of the ten (one was 20.02, so that could have been a simple click early and/or late of the watch) in under 20, and used the last one as a full-out sprint.

For me, my full-out 100-yard sprint comes out to be about 17.50. Not exactly Speedy Gonzales, eh?

But I’m out there, at least. Pluggin’ away at my speed-work. Or, to put it as my teammate would, kerlumping along.

So, yes. To you all, happy kerlumping!

~Darkness

Forest Park ... Again!!

Today I went back to beautiful Forest Park to run my distance run of the week.

I did the 10K course again, adding more at the end. It was warmer today, and I had no water. Gotta get prepared for XC! ;-)

Sorry today was short! Gomenosai! I wish I had more to say about my run! ;.; But I don’t want to bore you whit the same details as the other two runs in Forest Park.

Thanks for understanding!!

~Darkness

You know you’re a runner when (#2)...

...you can find many uses for band-aids
...you never stretch and then complain when your muscles get tight
...picking running shoes takes several hours
...you feel as if getting rid of old running shoes is a sacrilege
...you can remember specifically your splits, bib number, course and the weather for a run over a year ago, but can’t seem to remember your friend’s birthday
...the energy bar section makes you cringe now because of the overwhelming amount of “car-friendly” carbo-loading energy bars
...you know that your pace will fluctuate through a race, but you somehow expect the person your pacing off of to stay at the same pace through the entire race
...you have piles and piles of multicolored race applications stacked around your house
...you have stories about injuries and the ubiquitous black toenails that would make even football players cringe
...you have more (running) shoes than Barbie

They're coming to take me away! Hee-hee, ha-ha! To the funny farm we go!

Yes. Today is the day of the hills. The 95º day of the hills. The 95º and humid day of the hills.

I came back to my old haunts today, back to my purdy 80-yard hill near my house. I jogged a 2.something-mile warm-up to the glorious mound of searing hot pavement that will surely, one day, take my soul. If it hasn’t already.

I walked to the bottom, ten counters in hand (ye never want to do to many or too little of these suckers, ye-hear?). I snatched up one of them (a stick) and sprinted to the top. I placed my counter above the sewer drain and repeated. Ten times.

By the end, I felt quite disoriented. Not lightheaded or anything health-threatening, mind you. Just utterly happy. This is what I like to call Euphoria from Hell, and it only comes from doing sprints or hills on one of the hottest, muggiest days you could find.

But I must say, it feels great. Especially to have it all behind you as you jog home grinning from ear to ear about your accomplishment.

Forest Park

Today was the day of the Senior Games 5K! Woot!

I ran it with my same running buddy as yesterday, and we exchanged addresses afterward, promising to mail each other when we got the chance.

But today I’d like to describe the course. It went through beautiful Forest Park, past the zoo and a gorgeous rose garden.

On the way to the turnaround point, we got to run on a path through the duck ponds where perhaps 50 geese were wandering around with their goslings and a few ducks. The water looked quite inviting at that point, for it was sunny and quite warm.

As we jogged back, we hit the water-stop and continued on down a nice, cool path banking a lake.

From there, we dashed up the hill and ran our way to the finish line, little kids running around the playgrounds and the sounds of peacocks in the distance.

These are the kinds of runs I can’t get enough of. Serene and scenic, trees and the occasional person scattered about. These parks are truly running heaven.

What makes the world go 'round

Today I was still helping my dad out with the Senior Games. But today was the day of the 10K road race!

When the race started off, I was running with one of the women. We ran together for a bit, then started chatting about this and that, throwing water on each other at the stops and having a great time.

The 10K loop was two loops around scenic Forest Park. So we were both surprised when the halfway point came up so soon. But that quickly was behind us, and we were off on our second loop.

To our surprise, the end of the second loop came up quite quickly as well! This is a prime example of how having a great running buddy can turn a good run into a great one. And even during workouts, where you both can push each other to go harder and faster.

Run on!

~Darkness

Running Dictionary: Entry 1

Meaning

track 1 |trak|
noun
• a prepared course for athletes, horses, motor vehicles, bicycles or dogs to race on: a Formula One Grand Prix track
• the sport of running on such a track

Real meaning

track 1 |trak|
noun
• that oval thing that one must do evil speed work upon
• gives off a feeling of forboding. Perhaps anxiety from racing, perhaps from the challanges about to come.

In running heaven...

Lush scenery panned out around the trail-racers as they snaked through beautiful Ashley Resivoir on a slightly warm Thursday night for their weekly trail race.

Baby fish flitted about in the lakes that surrounded the first bit of the race as wispy clouds cast their ghostly images upon the water’s shimmering surface.

The crunch of gravel under the feet of many a running shoe, the lapping of the serine water against the quiet shore, the whistling of the spring trees as they whispered out their eerie songs. The sight of a forest of trees so straight and so tall that one might think that they weren’t natural.

It is runs like these that make you forget any troubles in you life or any problems at all. In fact, it is runs like these that blissfully take you away from reality, away from this world and to another so fantastic it takes your breath away.

They take you to a place so beautiful that even a master photographer couldn’t capture its beauty upon film. And above all else, they take you to running heaven; a place where you can run forever through the most gorgeous places without the worry of injury or fatigue.

But for us mortals, these great trail runs are here as a grand substitute, and should never be overlooked in the stack of colorful papers every road runner has stored away in his or her desk. For there is something magical about these courses that no soul should ever miss out on.

The Day of the Fool! Or: Why the heck would you do that, you complete moron?

Today shall hereby be known as and marked in the calendars as The Day of the Fool.

Why would one suddenly decide to do her tempo run and her hill workout on the same day?

Usually, that question is left untouched. Usually. Especially when one is dealing with a young runner recovering from injury. Then one might say that there should be absolutely no reason that question should ever be brought up. And to that I say ... um...

After hearing that this happened, a friend or coach might ask some of the following questions.

Friend: Well, at least the tempo wasn’t hard, right?

Runner: Um...

Friend: Er, at least the hills weren’t intense, right? Right?

Runner: Um...

Friend: This was tentatively in your schedule, though, right?

Runner: Um...

And so on and so forth. But, thankfully this tempo was a bit slower than last time’s. I crossed the finish line, gasping for air through the stormy humidity, in a time of 33:56 for four miles as opposed to my 32:39 for last week’s tempo.

All I can hope for is that this doesn’t vastly screw up my training schedule. (Heh-heh. Dream on, bucko.)

And as far as that, I will be away until Monday the 19th helping out with the Mass Senior Games (http://maseniorgames.org/) and I’ll be running there, hoping that the weekend isn’t as warm and muggy as it has been in past years.

Peace!
~Darkness

A visit to the doctor's office... #2!

Click to enlarge. :-)

Recovery joggage

I wish I had more to say about today, but it was a recovery easy jog, and fun easy things usually don’t make for good stories. ;-)

After my first speed workout of the season yesterday, my quads were incredibly sore. In the first half-mile of my jog I felt as if I was dragging my legs behind me.

But after a bit, that cleared up for the most part. If I stretched my legs out farther than I was doing, they twinged and tightened and so-fourth.

But I survived! Speed-work and post-speed-work run. Mainly thanks to my friend, whom I ran about 4 and a half miles with today. It was 80º, sunny and with only a little breeze, but having a good running buddy makes a world of difference!

I came down the last stretch of my run, weaving in and out of construction, vehicles and mounds of dirt as I kicked into the finish line in a time of 56:28.

Pickin' it up

The first part of my run today was supposed to be a four-and-a-half-mile jog finishing at the track.

But about 7 minutes into my run, I literally ran into my friend from XC/WT. We decided on the spur of the moment to go off and jog together. She was going farther than me, so I was going to just run with her until my watch hit 22:30.

The day was warm and the sun out for the first time in a long time. The mosaic of tattered leaves that I had seen on Thursday were dry and blowing about our feet as we ran, chatting to each other about this and that as we did back in XC.

Unfortunately we were having too much fun running together and I ended up turning around at 26-something. Oops.

I jogged back and hit the track at 51:34, 6:34 longer than what I’d planned to run.

I met up with my dad at the track and we jogged to the football field in the center of the track. Surprisingly the field was not wet at all! We had had constant rain for the past week, but you couldn’t tell that at all just by looking around you.

The second part of the workout was to do 10 pickups. Starting at the goal line, run to the 20-yard-line. Then sprint all-out to the next 20, decelerating from there.

Though by the final pickup, we were so tired we decided to do an all-out sprint through the whole 100 yards, leaving nothing on the field, putting everything into it that we possibly could on this hot day after 9 other pickups behind us.

A visit to the doctor's office

Click to enlarge. :-)

Love hurts

The first half of my run took me through beautiful Regis College’s campus. I jogged around for 40:03, yet never got bored! (I usually do when jogging around the same area for a while)

Though I must have seen every inch of the campus available at that time. I jogged up steps to beautiful old buildings, around grassy areas and parking lots and through paths leading to the backs of the buildings.

There was also a nice short yet steep hill there that I was tempted to do my repeats on. But I had another hill in mind, and I was sticking to it.

Which leads me to the second half of my run: a hill about 150 yards long, increasing in steepness as it went. When I reached the bottom (eventually) I fell in love with the hill. It was a beautiful in the only way certain-death-by-running can be.

I charged up the hill, ready to take on the challenge. What I hadn’t realized was that the steepness really increased about halfway up and the thing was longer than it appeared to be at the bottom.

Nonetheless, I had come to do 5 repeats here, and by gosh, I was going to do them. No matter how disoriented I was at the end!

And by the end, disoriented I was. But happy. And sore. And tired. But most of all, proud. I had seen the challenge before me, and, as a moth to a flame, took it.

I may be crazy to love these looming monsters called hills, but as the song goes, “Love hurts”.

And that it does.

Leafy mosaics

Torn and tattered leaves littered the asphalt in nature’s reminder of the nor’easter that had been just yesterday.

Two runners jogged down the sidewalks, laughing, paying no mind to the beautiful black and green mosaic upon the wet ground.

One recovering from a distance run earlier that week, the other recovering from her tempo run the previous day.

Eventually, the two split off and hugged each other goodbye. The tempo-runner grinned as she jogged home, soaking in the sights around her. And before she knew it, she was home as well. She beeped her time to a stop at 51:28. She thought for a moment. Perhaps they had been going ten-minute pace? That would make the distance about 5.1.

But that didn’t matter as much. They had had fun. The two were running buddies and good friends even in the world beyond running. They got together to go for a run whenever their schedules permitted, jogging off to wherever, and suddenly realizing that they were done.

Until next time!

Tempo nor'easter

Today my goal was to do a 9-minute-per-mile tempo run. A nice easy tempo for my first of the year.

It was raining when I decided to go out this morning. It was also 50-sum degrees and windy. Which meant I had some problems as far as dress.

It’s easy enough when you’re going for a jog to just throw on your Under Armor suit and go. But when racing or going at tempo pace, you’ll get hot quickly. Yet, it was still chilly, so I couldn’t go in just t-shirt and shorts as is my other usual on days like this or my muscles would get tight from the cold. So I compromised and went for t-shirt and UA tights.

Once Band-Aids were in place, I headed out. As is usual with the start of a tempo for me, I had no clue as to what pace I was going at, so I picked it up more.

Mile one came in at 8:16. Way off my planned pace, but rather nice for the wind and rain.

Being me, I deduced that I had probably started slowing down (I was feeling a tad slow) so I picked it up more. Also being me, I always fail in realizing that I’m not slowing down, my body is just adapting to the speed. Quite a useful bit when in a race, not as good when trying to go at a certain pace.

At about the 1.5 mile-mark, I was starting to feel tired again. Though my two-mile split showed me that I was still going faster than planned pace: 16:36, or 8:20 for the mile. Four seconds slower than the last mile, but I was heading into the wind, up hills and my shirt felt like I had taken a shower in it.

I turned around. Half of my run completed. The wind was now at my back, and I was cruising on a slight downhill stretch.

I dashed through the 3-mile mark in 24:36, 8:00 for the mile, and opened up my stride to carry my the final mile back home.

As I rounded corners, the wind was back at my front, but I could barely feel it. I pounded up the hills and sprinted the last quarter-mile stretch towards home. I crossed the finish line in a time of 32:39, 8:03 mile, 3:21 off of my planned time.

At the end, I hopped on the scale, and found out that my clothes weighed in at around 2 pounds! But if that’s the price I have to pay for doing my tempo in the rain, I’ll do it again. And again.

Run on!

~Darkness

Running Comics #1

Click comic to enlarge. :-)

Muskrats and Mosquitoes

Today marks the longest jog that I’ve ever done. I went about 8.2 miles in 1:22:27!

I ran with my friend today and we ended up going down a road through the woods. We were expecting to go perhaps 3, but ended up going 6! (I jogged 1 mile to her house and one mile back to give me 8)

Temperature was perfect, though the ground was still wet from all the rain, and the mosquitoes were out and hungry for runners!

This course is probably one of my favorites in the town. It goes through a forest then out onto a long road through an everglade. There’s so much life there! As we crossed a bridge, a muskrat dove into the water right next to us.

How beautiful!

Rhody 5K

Yay! Today is the day of my second Rhody 5K!

The conditions were PERFECT. 52º, cool and breezy, overcast and a slight mist. Plus, I got to run with my best friend and help her along in her first 5K race.

Last year, the race was so poorly run, that the men’s race started 15 minutes late, and the women’s 12 minutes late. Plus, it was about 80º and blasting sun. The only saving grace was the cookout at the end and we got to finish around the dog track! Yay!

This year the course was different (they were doing some renovations to the track and casino) and the course consisted of a lot of running around the parking lots. But it was fun anyhoo.

Me and my friend ran a 29:19 together, yet we had different per-mile paces. Interesting. I felt really happy for my friend, starting off running her first 5K race this good! For, when I started, my first 5K was in about 31 or 32 minutes. oO

Though today was interesting in more ways than that. As I wandered around after the race (eating watermelon and drinking Gatorade) three groups of people that I knew from other races and such stopped me and talked to me.

You know you’ve run quite a few road races when... ;-)

Rain, rain, don't go away!

Today was the day for my long run. I’m up to 7 miles now, and I say, “The longer the better.”

Today was an interesting experience. I started 7 miles away from my house and jogged (slowly) back. It was raining then, but only a little, and I was protected by tree cover. About 2 miles into the run, the rain got steady, then the skies opened up, dumping down buckets of water upon scattered cars and one lone runner.

The rain was in fact so heavy, that I could barely see. Lakes formed on the sides of the roads and cars created tidal waves as they passed.

At about mile four, my shoes were filled with water and felt like sodden towels. My pants were no drier, and my jacket was plastered to my soaked body.

Sounds fun? Precisely. The only creatures that could ever actually think that this is the best thing in the world are the runners.

Run on!

~Darkness Kitten

You know you’re a runner when (#1)...

...It’s 20º out and you’re wearing shorts
...You do laps around the parking lot just to make sure you run your entire 60 minutes
...You’re transfixed by other people running
...You just can’t bare to part with your old running shoes, even if the sole is falling off and the rest of it used to be... green?
...You go running at 11 PM just to get your run in for that day
...You flip out if someone offers you something with salt or caffeine before your run
...You think that Track is just something that’s there to give you “speed” before Cross Country starts
...Your shorts are smaller than the “popular girl’s” shorts
...You’re dismayed to find that the Powerbar sections in the store are being taken over by “Atkin's Approved” and “Low Carb” energy bars
...You’re reading this right now

Zeus sends his message to the runners

Thunder crashed and rain came sprawling down as two forms came jogging out of the storm. As cars splashed by them, a bolt of lightning cut a jagged dart across the dim sky.

The two forms sprinted down the last straight-away and gave a whoop as they crossed the finish line on their one-mile course in a time of 8:30.

One was in his forties, squeezing his run in before dinner. The other in her mid-teens, putting in her second run of the day to give her five miles for the day.

For both, it was an accomplishment. And as they grinned into the storm, you could tell that they were having the time of their lives.

Of Aerosmith and running

Today I learned a valuable lesson in the art of summer running.

I just today started running with my cute black iPod nano, and I have a menagerie of classic and new rock on there. Including Aerosmith.

Now, at the beginning, it’s quite fun to sing along and play air-guitar to a song you like. But when you hit the ubiquitous halfway point, you suddenly realize that it’s 85º outside and trying to sing along to Audioslave and Aerosmith really tires you out. Especially when you’ve been playing air-guitar along the way as well.

But all that tiring stuff aside, it’s still quite fun. Unless you’re going up a hill. Then you’re left gasping for air for the next three minutes.

As far as the running goes, I went a nice, easy four miles in 39:20. I’m doing another 1 tonight and will keep you posted on what happens there.