Another sweaty day

I got halfway to Veteren's Park and felt like something was missing. Shuffle? yes, Gatorade? yes, Visor? yes, Heart Rate monitor? yes, t-shirt to change into? yes, Garmin? no. Oh rats, no garmin and it's too late to turn back. Don't you hate to run without your Garmin? Especially today, since we were doing hills, I wanted to monitor my heart rate. Well, at least I could take off my monitor and not worry about chaffing.

The first 4 miles were really hilly and I took it slow and easy. I felt pretty heavy with the heat and I'm so glad that we are starting at 6 next week instead of 7. When I was first training for marathons a couple of years ago, I hated that early start time and we started at 5:30 but now I really like it. It keeps the whole day from being used up with the run and you get a head start on the heat. Rachel joined us again and it was great to have her cheery spirit to lead us on. It was great to see Greg as well, he had been injured while training for St. Louis and is getting back into training. And it was great to meet Jason's mom, I think this multi-generational running is way cool.

I didn't go to hill training Monday night because I needed to be somewhere else but I learned that people turned out in spite of the heat and Dave brought icy cold sponges so people could be refreshed after running the hills. So, I'm pretty sure I'll be there on Monday and it is supposed to be a litle bit cooler.

I'm reading an excellent book on running, actually like a runner's bible, The Lore of Running by Dr. Timothy Noakes. It covers physiology, training for all distances, what to do for all types of injuries, it will be a good reference book. I also have a couple of books on reserve at the library,

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (thank you Rachel for the recommendation). Another one that I've already read that was fascinating about the history of women's running was http://www.amazon.com/Marathon-Woman-Running-Revolutionize-Womens/dp/0786719672/?tag=completerunni-20 I will forever be grateful to Katherine Switzer for clearing the way for women's running.
Anybody else out there have some favs you care to recommend?

Easy Does It

It is sweltering today, I elected to run with Cindy's group at 6:00 a.m. instead of my RW group at 7:00, good choice, it was so humid even at that early hour and it sure didn't feel like 78. We ran from Helmrich Park up to Turkey Mountain and on to the west side of the river and back to the park, 10 m on my Garmin but could have been over 11, depending on how much you walked. On our way back as we came to Turkey Mountain parking lot we observed that the sun had just come out in full force and we were so glad that we didn't have much further to go.

I'm so glad I started wearing my heart rate monitor because I felt like I was working so hard but my bpm were in the 150 range instead of the 170 that it felt like. We took it really slow and took lots of walk breaks. Several from this group are going to Seattle for the marathon there next Saturday so there was no need to push hard, thankfully, I was glad when this run was done and really enjoyed the frappuccino at Starbucks. We had someone new join us, Rachel from Broken Arrow, who was a delight to have along and did her 1st 1/2 marathon at the Aquarium Run and finished under 2.00...I'm impressed!

I've been going to the hill work training on Monday night and even though it is so very hot, it is only about 4 miles plus the hill repeats and I know the hill repeats are going to pay off in strength building. I'm the slowest and oldest one there but that's ok, I will get faster and feel younger.

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Great start for Runner's World Route 66 training

Today was our kick-off for training for the R66 fall marathon. We have about 250 people signed up at different distances. We had a great crowd this morning and we were assigned to groups. I think this is a good idea and once we get settled into the right pace group, we'll be smoking. We had a good, easy 6 mile run and I went back out for 3 with Michael M and Rebecca (someone I haven't met before) more afterwards. Jason is our leader and he did a great job of keeping us on pace and encouraging us. He and Leesa just moved into a different house and they were up until 1:00 last night moving in. I really appreciate the dedication of the run leaders. I was glad to see Janet in my group, she pushes me and she's very encouraging. We're close in age and manage to have some good talks while we run. Our group is training for a 4:30 marathon andwe're off to a good beginning. I'm going to try and do the hill work on Monday evening with Dave S. It's really hard to get away from work so we'll see if I can get there by 5:30.

I've started wearing my heart monitor more consistently so I can monitor how hard I am working.