The Need For Speed

Is it really November already?  November 3 even?  Wow.  The year, like the long sunlit days, will soon be over.  2010 here we come!

We didn't really do anything special for Halloween this year, aside from sleeping an extra hour on Sunday!  Ah that was nice.  But weeknight trails runs are mostly gone now for the next 3 months or so unless I dig out the headlamp and find a nighttime running partner in crime.  Instead I plan to be focused on shorter, faster runs during the week and "semi-long" runs on the weekend + cross training, which I have been doing. 

Saturday I went out for a run with Deb who has been running consistently on the treadmill at her gym.  I told her it was about 6.5 miles around the lake (the short way) and she was up for the task.  Less than a half mile in she asked if it's really harder to run outside vs. on the treadmill.  I said "yes - why?", to which she responded "I can feel it!".  We had a really good run and even with a pretty big hill managed to tick off the 6.5 miles in just over 66 minutes.  Not bad and it was a decent day.

Sunday and Monday also proved to be pretty nice days.  We are getting lucky this fall so far.  nearly 60 and perfectly sunny 2 days in a row in November?  That's rare as just about any native Portlander will tell you.  I took advantage of the weather and ran a PR on my local 3.4 mile loop that includes a rather large .5 mile long hill about 1 mile in.  My 3.4 time was 33:33.  The hills slowed me down a little but I ran the last mile at 8:48 pace to help boost my overall time.

I'm finding comfort in my newly found speed -at least in the shorter distances. It sorta helps make up for my longer distance performance as of late.  I need to rebuild from the ground up this winter - sort of like the bionic woman :)  Start with the basics then build my miles when the days get warmer.

On November 14th, I'm planning to run the dirty, tough and supposed-to-be lots of fun "Kevin's Cup 8K trail race"  The bonus is that it's only 10 minutes from my house and on trails I've run many times.  The race is actually 5.88 miles (shouldn't it be called a 9 or 10k?) and my goal is 58 minutes.  On the road I think I'm capable of that now - but on the trails with some tough (but short) single track climbs?  We will see - either way it will be fun!  Below is from the race website (this same organization is putting on a Ho Ho 5K trail race in December I'll probably run):

"This nasty lil’ trailers serves up a variety of challenges… mud, creeks, trails, brutal ankle twisting switchbacks, bone-jarring down-hills,  lung-searing up-hills and more.  If you are looking for some cutesy downtown commercial road race… save the coin.  If you enjoy the eye watering, sweat dropping, and snot flying challenge that this course will promise -- then… risk the skinned knee, scraped elbow, and damaged ego and run it."

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

Comments

[Tom]

You are getting to be pretty fast. Hope the nice weather holds.

The thing I don't like about short runs is that it takes me 2 or 3 miles just to warm up!

[socaltrailrunning]

Yea the first 15-20 minutes is warm up for me so the first half of a run like that is rough to keep going at a good pace! Guess that's why I had negative splits (aside from the hill at the end :)