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August 25, 2004
Long Day
This morning I got up early and met a fellow colleague/friend at Phoenix Lake. We ran Yolanda (~4.5 miles) nice and easy. The air was crisp and it was a beautiful way to start the day. We talked the entire time and after the run we stopped at Shaky Grounds for a cup of coffee!
At practice I ran at the back of the pack to make sure no one got lost/injured. We ran Tennessee Valley, which is the site of the school's "Home Cross Country " course. It's a bit ironic because it's a good 10 miles away from the school, but it's a beautiful 3 mile course, with parking, and a wide open trail for multiple use purposes (biking, horse riding, running, etc). The course goes out to the ocean on a single track and comes back on a fireroad. The first half is very flat the second half is a bit rolling. The Valley was covered in a cool, cold fog. No one jumped in the ocean today. (Typically at least a handful of kids come back to the vans dripping and laughing because they took a dip in the cold Pacific!).
( I'm always amazed that the student athletes I coach don't rave and go on and on more about the places we get to run every day. I've lived here 5 years and I'm still not over how lucky and privileged I am to be able to run on the most beautiful trails every single day. At practice we shake it up so much. They never do the same course two days in a row. They get to run on mountains, along the ocean, through canyons., through waterfalls...it really is awesome. They don't even have to drive to the trail themselves, or worry about parking, or how to get to these fabulous destinations... All through high school and even some in college most of my runs were on the roads. There just weren't a lot of trails to run on....but now I'm literally surrounded by a diversity of trails all around me. I'm sure one day it'll hit some of these student athletes.... just how unique their geographic, cultural, personal setting is....and maybe somedays even now it dawns on them... I guess sometimes especially when it comes to running I just wear my emotions on my sleeves..and I can't help getting caught up in my surroundings...!!! and how lucky I am all around. ))
After practice I met up with my husband and took the car into the city. Since a friend of mine was hosting Girls Night out in the city...I decided I should jump into the all women's track workout that the racing team (Impalas) I'm on was hosting (They have Track workouts every Tuesday night and Saturday workouts --usually in golden gate park...). I knew I'd be tired going into this workout...but I also know it's so important to run with a pack of women...especially if you plan on racing with a pack of women...! I found the group on the Polo Fields. Just as I arrived they were starting their striders. I joined them and realized my legs were pretty beat. I decided not to go too crazy and jump to the front of the pack once the interval started...I decided to hang back a bit and go by effort ... Our workout was 6-8 800 m repeats on the Polo fields. The loop is 1000 meters; so we got 200 meters break/jog in between...and the loop is all dirt and sand...so the footing isn't perfect....but it's not horrible either...! I ended up hanging out in the middle of the pack for most of the 6 repeats I did. My times ranged between 2:53 and 3:01. The effort felt harder than the times might indicate and I think that's because I was tired from my previous runs (today and over the weekend) and the start of school...I think the surface is also challenging ...it's hard to run smoothly between the single track and the sand. I ran literally with about 8 women for all 6 intervals...we were all in a tight pack and there were women in front and behind us...I just think that kind of density is so great....and it makes the workout so much easier. All in all, now that the workout is over--I am very glad that I did it and I realize I need to go to more organized track workouts b/c the training, feeling, results are very hard to attain by myself!!!
Ladies night was very fun. We had dinner, dessert, talked and talked and talked....Ahhh--it was a great way to end a very long day.
Posted by liz at August 25, 2004 12:24 PM
Comments
Hi Liz, All three of your runs on Tuesday sounded great. I am so imressed you did the workout after such a long day. I think your times are really decent. The polo fields are so hard to run smoothly on. The SHCP girls times were usually about 10 seconds off of their track times per mile so your splits seem right on, not to mention the fact that you already ran two times that day. Where did you go for girls night? Sounds like fun! The beauty of the trails does always seem to go unnoticed by most of the high school runners.. too bad. How is Sissy doing? I have to call her. Hope you have a great run today. I am going to head out for my run around 7 p.m. Thanks for the update. More soon, Mary
Posted by: Mary at August 25, 2004 01:05 PM