Week 14/17 HM Training - Run #1 11.5K

This pic is what I found under images for "casual, relaxed" ... ?!?!?!!? There were other equally bizarre images, but at least this weird one gave me an excuse to post an image of a dog.

In direct contrast to weather predictions of rain, rain, rain for the week, this morning was sunny, gorgeous, and just the right temperature. :) Thank goodness I had a run scheduled because it would have been very difficult to have a rest day!

The run started out well. Same old, same old. :) A friend drove by me on the bridge and honked at the 2K mark. :) By the 3 km mark, I saw another friend ahead of me with her dog so the three of us stopped to chat and sniff with them (for the record, I chatted only!) as we walked a short distance together. After making arrangements to meet up later in the week, we were off again.

I usually have trouble resuming running after stopping, and today was no exception. The next few km were a little tough to get my legs going again. I so admire people who can run, stop for awhile, and then start running again because I just don't seem to be able to do this 'well.' However, I was farther away from home than not and running at this point was also a mode on transportation to return home in time so off we went ... I had to suck it up. :)

Once again, there wasn't really anything of consequence to report in this post. It was, in general, a sweet, casual, relaxed run (hence the image search that produced a dog in people clothing). :) I was happy to take it easy because I have a speed workout scheduled for tomorrow, and I think last week's enthusiastic and faster 11.5K run tired me out a little too much for the following day's speed assignment.

Of note is the fact that I ran up my nemesis hill once again without stopping, and it made me realize that I have been doing this quite regularly for awhile - should I really be calling it nemesis hill anymore? "Thrill Hill" still fits as an ironic name because there is nothing thrilling about this hill at all. :( But I guess I can now say that I am 'thrilled' that this hill no longer poses an overwhelming challenge to me, that it has slowly over the course of this running season become a 'norm' to run several times per week. :)

*****

Schedule change. :) I have a 10K race in Stratford this coming Sunday - the Festival City Run. :) This is one of the easiest weeks to adjust/switch to accommodate a race in my training schedule. I will run my LSD of 16K on Friday (instead of Sunday), and consider my 10K race on Sunday the equivalent of my speed workout scheduled for Friday. Check this out ... my speed workout is 3 x 2 miles @21:22 so in order to 'meet expectations', I will run need to run 10K (6.2 miles) on Sunday in 1:06:14 (it was a little bit of an effort to figure that one out exactly!). This is not factoring in the two steep hills on the course versus the flat track ideal conditions, but I will mull it over and consider in my race prediction post this coming Saturday evening. :)