Photos from Saturday July 10 Hills Hills and More Hills

The were numerous daunting hills and some very scenics views as well, and some old covered bridges.

After these mamoth hill we get to the top only to find it goes higher yet.

This is some of us took a little post race dip or squat. It was a shallow fast moving, and COLD, river.

This is a different set of hills than the previous shot, and most unfortunately they all came after the halfway point.

I was not hit with a $5 fine even though I broke the speed limit - hopefully.

Quote of the day: " Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." - John Ruskin

Core workouts

It is great running weather here in MI this week, very cool with only scattered sprinkles of rain. I am loving it but not our workouts. On Tuesday we did more of the same hill, but 12 times this week, and today we did 30 minutes of core workout + 12 200's.

The core workout is interesting, I had never done these extensively, and especially as part of a marathon training. I think they are helping a lot but what I really need is calf workouts. That is were I am feeling the pain after 20+ miles and only a few to go, wishing I had never taken up running. I did buy some funny compression socks that I will finally get to try this weekend, as we are running 16 miles Saturday.

Started reading Always Looking Up by Micheal J.Fox, looking forward to it since I loved his first one, Lucky Man. I will let you know how it is, that is if I finish it before the marathon! I am more of a book on CD type of person so I am not sure how I will do with an actual book.

Quote of the day: "Life is short... running makes it seem longer."-Baron Hansen

Gruelling workout

My training group runs meets at 6:30 PM and I got there at 5:30 after moving some cement from my cousins house yesterday so I decided to do a warmup lap around the lake, about 4.32 miles, or so I am told by all the Garmin wearers of my group. This item has becoming more of a runner's accessory than the iPod. A watch that tells you exactly how far you have gone and the time you did it in, some even give you maps that help you find your way home. Very handy, will have to look into getting one.

Then the actually training started, we were to start with a 2-mile jog to the park followed by 4-8 laps up a hill and then the same 2 mile jog back to the meeting place. This 2-mile jog to get there was easy until we hit the last half mile, which was all up hill, a slow incline that just kept going up. We did a few running stretches or exercises really because as you will find out I abhor stretching, more on that later. Now time for the real workout, a decent sized hill not too long but pretty steep, a great sledding hill in the winter. Coach wants us to run for about 50 yards to the hill and be near full speed as we hit the hill and hit the hill with everything we have and then coast along the top and down and start again (I will take my camera next time as I hear we will be doing this one quite often this summer). After 8 of the I was about ready to puke and we sill had to get back, and better yet I had to carry the water jug (those gatorade size jugs football teams throw over a coach's head) home for a comment I made about ice cream during the exercises. At least they emptied it first! I jogged back the 2 miles with that jug over one shoulder and in front of me and over the other shoulder, switching when I got sore. It wasn't that heavy but quite awkward to carry while jogging. They joked that I was the mobile aid station and asked for a drink. I told them they would have to get their drinks at the bar just like everyone else. Many of our crew like to hit a local brewery after the workouts.

I got home and I still had to empty the cement chunks out of my car and walk the dogs. What took me 20 minutes to put into the car, took me twice that to remove from the car. It is for a project for my backyard, we are trying to alleviate some of the dampness way in the back. The dogs were so pent up by now that I gave up after a quarter mile and just let the leashes go and ran along side of them. They know the only purpose of the leash is to keep me with four feet of them. The pull the leash taught and drag me down the usual route unless there is something interesting to smell. Last time I weighed them JoJo, a German Shepherd, was 63 pounds and Clancy, a Kelpie/shepherd mix, was 56 pounds, so 120 pounds of dog that sometimes wants to go 2 directions at once, or worse if JoJo smells a rabbit or squirrel she will go full bore after it and Clancy will freeze in the middle of the sidewalk. I usually end up trip over Clancy and jerking both dogs by the neck back to me, 1 from each direction. It is always important that I watch and see the rabbits and squirrels before JoJo and the small dogs before Clancy (he hates yappers as much as I do!)

Quote of the day: The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. -- Anonymous