Today was my 2d "Long run" with the group, and it was a fun one! We ran the Town Lake trail 5 mile route - with a twist! We stopped at Austin High School and ran a mile on their track! This was really cool, my first time to run on that track. Very nice surface, soft and springy! Although I have ran on other tracks before, I always found it pretty boring. This was cool, as we were sharing the track with a lot of other groups. We did 4 laps of course, and I have to say since I was stuck in the outside lane I had a longer way to go! Lol. We did sprints (using the word really loosely!) on the straights, and jogged through the turns. So basically 8 wind sprints, followed with the last 2 miles of our run....total distance was 6.25 today. It really ramped up my confidence for next Saturday's Run For the Water 10 mile race. Not that I will be racing anyone but myself, lol. My goal for the 10 miler is to go out slow, stay slow, finish and not get hurt!
I've been having some issues with my left calf that really surprised me - my calves are the strongest part of my body I thought....but then again cycling and running are completely different animals. And although I do believe the cycling helped me with an aerobic base to start with, running is running. Only cycling really builds cycling endurance, from my own experience, and so it makes sense that I need to run to build that running endurance also. The calf thing is a tightness that feels somewhat like a charley horse....and it goes away once I start running. Not really what I would call painful, and it's much better this week. Heat, stretch, ice a few times per day I was told, and that really has helped.
The main thing is, I'm having fun with it again. The group is something that to be perfectly honest totally frightened me at first. Doing something I've always done pretty much alone in a large group was a daunting thought. How I got out of bed last weekend and into my car is a testament to the fact we need to push ourselves to do new things, to experience more Life. At least for me. And I could not have had better experiences my first two times. It helps that we break down into smaller groups after a initial warm up and signing in...I'm running with the 10:30 pace group, led by Cheryl. It's cool in that I can be as social as I want, or as solitary as I need. I don't have the best "wind" at the start of my runs, and it takes me a while to settle in. That seems to work well, as not everyone is a morning person like me. It would be easy to alienate people at 6:30am being a chatterbox!!! Of course every group has one, but so far it's not me!!
Tomorrow is cross training day, so it's back to a spin class I think, for an easy effort and then into the pool for some laps. I'm loving the new trunks and goggles, maybe I'll actually post a pic here soon.
(Note - pictured is my new best friend. Long runs without it would be just plain stupid. This holds 20 oz, and I was amazed that I never heard anything slosh once, and it stayed firmly on my hips and never annoyed me at all!! Worth every penny! A Nathan's Trail Mix hydration belt - it has a great pouch for storing keys and ID, gels etc. LOVE IT!)
