Running Date

I've mentioned before that because the kids are back in school, I have three mornings a week of guaranteed running time (barring illness, or a pile of laundry).  I can actually make plans to run with others in the middle of the week!  My sis in law Jeannine and friend Norine (my friends and marathon partners) run pretty often at Green Lakes Park, which has trails that loop around two lakes, as well as up into woodsy areas, so we planned our first post marathon run together last Friday.  My friend Kelly and I have been trying to meet up for a run for months now, and as she's training for a 50k trail run this fall, I invited her to come along.

We ended up going the day after a huge rainstorm, and the trails were wet, and pretty muddy in some spots.  Started off around the lake, then headed up some steep inclines, I kept my head down for most of it, lots of roots and rocks to watch out for.  Here is Norine: 

It was so much fun to just clomp along in the mess, not worrying about pace, just running.  Well, and walking up some of the crazy steep parts.  I was hoping we could do about six miles, before we had to leave to pick up Miss Eliza at school, so we did have to watch the clock.  Here is Kelly when she realized the trail ended after we made a wrong turn:

Huh?

Got going again, and this is Jeannine and Kelly from the back when we headed back towards the lakes:

Once we made it back down, we had maybe a mile left to get to the car, which gave us plenty of time to get back home on time.  Kelly and I ran along, and we lost sight of Jeannine and Norine.  I suggested we back track a bit to see if we could find them, which we did.  So we ran, and ran some more. And some more.  When we got back to the point where we had stopped to look for them, we realized we ran that lake loop twice!  Once we figured out where we were, we got moving again, and that's when I knew I was going to be late for school pick up.  So we were booking along at a good clip, with not much of the trail left....and Hammy started protesting, big time.  So much so that I had to walk, which was annoying.  I felt like I had really pushed it, but didn't totally destroy it, so that was good. 

Back in the car, Kelly checked her Garmin for our splits, the first couple of miles were in the 11:00 minute range, which makes sense because we were climbing, and figuring out where the trail was.  The last mile was around 8:37! Which goes to show I have it in me to go fast, I just have to really want it!

After I got Eliza, and said bye to the girls, I popped some Advil, iced and rolled the heck out of Hammy, and felt okay for the rest of the afternoon.  It was stiff over the weekend, during an all day wine tour of Seneca Lake on Saturday, and during a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Sunday (which we did for my Mom in Law Diane, and her sister Cathy who are both Survivors).

So I figured this morning I would go out for a short run, because I'm all amped up to tackle the 259 miles I have left in my 1,000 mile goal.  Made it half a mile, when Hammy said, "uh uh, no way, no how." So I walked some, started running again, and it said "weren't you listening? I said no way. Not now."  Which reeeeaaaly makes me mad, because I just had two weeks of solid, pain free runs.  I'm hoping I didn't undo all the progress I've made in healing.

I'm going to be good, as much as I don't want to, I'm going to take this week off.  I really, really don't want to.  But I'll be good. 

I think.