One hop this time

OK, so maybe switching from my first 30 minute run to a full week of 30 minute runs wasn't the best idea...

Last Friday I went down to Blacksburg, VA to go camping with a group of my undergrad friends, a few new friendly faces, and my younger brother. It was set to go from Saturday night through Sunday, so I made my run in the morning through the loop around my former local house. It was a bit colder and much more hilly than my usual path at home, but I was able to finish pretty easily with no problems. So far so good...

We took our camping excursion to Wind Rock on the Appalachian Trail. I'd been once before, but only to enjoy the sunset before heading back home. This time we packed all of our camping gear, some food and drinks, and a couple of extra layers in hopes that we could take on the supposed 32 degree weather through the night.



As it turns out, we were closer to wrong than we wanted to be. It dropped to the low 20s and snowed overnight as we rested(barely due to semi moist and cold toes and hands). Instead of shuffling around and getting even colder in the tent, I snuck out at about 6:30 in the morning and caught both the sight of a faint sunrise through the snow clouds, and a few embers from our doused night fire kept alive by the winds breaking off the mountain.



Thankfully I was able to revive the fire back to something substantial, and it became enough for everyone to warm back up and get to their cars and homes comfortably. There was never any danger of hypothermia or frostbite, but the intensity of the cold was definitely more than we were prepared for.



All that considered, The sunset was just as pretty as I had remembered, and I'm really glad the trip was organized because it still was a great time with good people. The snow-capped mountain turned out to be a really beautiful surprise as well.

...anyway, back to the running progress.

Everything was groovy through Wednesday, but then I hit a fatigue wall. My guess is it was probably building up from the lack of sleep on the camping trip on top of two of my longest runs to date. I was absolutely exhausted, and chose not to run Wednesday afternoon. I was so tired that I went to bed probably earlier than I was forced to as a 7 or 8 year old...crashed at 8. Probably a very good decision, in my opinion.

Thursday I picked it back up again at a less pressing pace, and Friday followed just as easily as Tuesday had. My next concern was how well I would be able to run after another set of consecutive runs; prior to this weekend I had signed up for the annual 5KD, again in Blacksburg. The goal going in was to start to acclimate myself to running around other people so I can be ready and not thrown off pace when the real deal comes this fall.

DEFINITELY a good decision. I was suckered in to the psychological mindset early on that "oh, these people are running pretty fast; I better keep up". But I also realized after about a mile or so that I was definitely going faster than I had been when training, or should have been to ready myself for the marathon. When the side groups at the first mile marker rallied off "8:14!"...I knew I should have slowed down, but also subconsciously told myself "it's only 3.1 miles, DO IT!". Eventually I thought better when the pack separated to a point when I could run comfortably in my own bubble without worrying about weaving or not letting the next guy/girl behind me pass by.

By a mile and a half, I wised up to what my real goal was -- find a good long distance pace, and finish in 30:00 (10 min/mile) or less. So I slowed up a bit, and got past the end line in the 25 minutes and some change range. It was a good run, but it was faster than I was used to and I felt it.

Lesson learned -- keep signing up for more of these...it does a body (and mind) good. More practice in groups will make the takeoff phenomenon not so herd-like and more me-like.

For now, I think this coming week's goal is 33:00 per daily run. The frequency is subject to change depending on how I feel. Eventually I need to start varying my distances, but I still think I'm in a safe zone where I'm not running too far every day that would put me at a high risk of injury.

P&L,
Be Easy