Mid Week Training: Hill Repeats #1

Please forgive the influx of posts you're about to receive. Now that I have pictures, I can get caught up!

Now our mid weeks have gone from conditioning to hill training. What is hill training, you may ask?

In short, it's a mild form of torture.

There's a hill just down from Brookside Club House that runs parallel to the Rose Bowl loop. TNT members call it the Hard Knock Hill.

I can say I was extremely nervous. There had been talk about aqua jogging being done instead since I was still battling my shin splints, but I found myself at the bottom of the hill staring up and up and up.

We were supposed to run up and then walk down. Gaily, Janet, and I got to walk because we're injured turtles. But don't think it was an easy walk. We moved at a good pace.

The first two times were decent. The hill couldn't really compare to the area I live in and the massive, steep hills I've dragged my butt up before.

The third one, however, started to ache in earnest. I'm pretty sure my calves were revolting against the incline.

Nevertheless, we made it through all five, even if we were the last ones to be done.

Next week is six!

Practice #5: Seventy Five Minutes

We have come to our last day of timed runs. Next practice starts the mileage. I'm excited and nervous, but this week was a big week. For several reasons.

First of all, I went to Run With Us Thursday morning and was fitted for some insoles. Now, I've had orthotics suggested to me, but I have a good reason for being iffy on those. I don't have pain every moment of every day. If simple walking were painful, I would consider them, but since the pain is only during running, there's really no reason for them. I tried a few and ended up with a pair of Superfeet. Thursday night, when I went for my run, there was some pain, but it was so minimal compared to everything I've felt that I hesitate to call it pain. Either way, I was able to actually run one-one intervals!

I cried at the end of the workout because I realized I can really do this.

Saturday morning, when we met, it was freezing. I kept moving with a patch of sun, desperate to stay in it, as evidenced by my different positions in these photos.

We got updated on our team fundraising total. (Hopefully, Tink will be all the way at the top by the end of the season.)

Then, the mission moment was mine to give. Since my friend Katie is a leukemia survivor, she is my honored teammate. I was worried I would start crying while I told her story, but luckily I was able to get through it without any tears. (Afterward, our LLS chapter head, Sarah, told me she knew the type of leukemia Katie had and started crying, thinking I was giving an "In Memoriam" moment.)

Bombur the Mascot

If you guys don't remember, I used this gif in the beginning of my journey to describe how I felt running.

Let's be honest, that feeling hasn't changed.

Now, you all know how much I love anything Tolkien, especially The Hobbit. (You're going to get a background story here, Just go with it. I'm an English major; it happens.) When I saw the first "Hobbit" movie, I noticed this guy in the background during the dinner party just eating. Everyone is staring in awe at the key Gandalf gives Thorin, and this guy is staring at a hard boiled egg in his hand. The food has long been cleared away, and he somehow has food in his hand and is chewing in the background.

This is Bombur, descendant of the Dwarves of Moria. He is introduced in the first chapter of the book as "immensely fat and heavy" (which is good for a dwarf) and later they describe him running for his life as "poor Bombur, who was fat, and staggered along with the sweat dripping down his nose in his heat and terror." He is constantly described just so throughout the story, and his portrayal in the movie was perfect.

So, when I saw this snippet at the beginning of the second movie, I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard. And, of course, it reminded me of this:

But it gets even better! I was watching the Behind the Scenes featurette for this (yes, I am that person) and the actor actually ran with that huge fat suit on. Peter Jackson told everyone else to run as fast as they could and then told Stephen Hunter to run faster. And when everyone else laughed and doubted he could do it, HE PASSED THEM BY! They did four takes and each time, he put the speed on and went for it.

Bearing that in mind, I decided he needed to become my running mascot!

And a friend of mine agreed to draw Bombur in TNT gear for me. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you Katherine's wonderful art!

He even knows how to rock the cowbells!

I am absolutely in love. He's going up on the sidebar of this blog. I think I will have to bring him along to the actual race too!

Go, Bombur, go!

Practice #4: Sixty Minutes

We had a change of scenery this week. Some sort of snowboarding thing was going on at the Rose Bowl. (Snow?? In Southern California?!) I don't know what it was, but it meant we ended up at Hahamongna Park. I never even knew this place existed, but it is gorgeous.

Unfortunately, it was miserably cold. And that means uncooperative muscles, despite our attempts to warm up. Still, the new scenery was distracting, at least for a little bit.

I was determined to stay in my pace group. I wanted to keep up with Gaily and Janet. It was not to be. Even after walking for a bit, once the intervals started, so did the pain. I tried to just run through it, hoping some sort of runner's high would kick in, but it never did. Gradually, I fell further and further behind, and it took everything in me just to keep walking.

But I was determined. I was going to walk as fast as I could and do the entire sixty minutes.

Practice #3: Fifty Minutes

This week we were set to run for fifty minutes. But we did our little meeting first. I won a raffle for a donation from teammate Ana, but I won because I was the only person who sent in honored teammate information. So . . . yay me!

Let me preface this picture with the fact that I am not a morning person and I'm usually struggling to come to full awareness during the meetings in the morning. Hence my confused face and atrocious posture.

Next came the mission moment. Erin shared her dad's story. Luckily, he is a survivor and she gets to run in the hopes that, someday, a little girl doesn't have to go through the horror she did at learning her dad had cancer. We got to add his name to our collection of ribbons.

Practice #2: Pace Groups

Big shock: I was put in the last pace group. I'm beyond the point where I feel bad about being slow. At least there's nowhere to go but up, right?

We started with the usual update and mission moment from Coach Gaily. I love the mission moments and the fact that we wear ribbons for each person's story we hear. When I feel like what I'm doing is impossible or I'm feeling sorry for myself, I look at those ribbons and remember the cause I'm running for. Cliche, I know. Or when I ask Katie (my honored teammate) why I'm doing this, she tells me it's because I love her. It's nice to get those reminders when I need them.

After that, the owner of Run With Us in Pasadena spoke to us about gear we need for this journey. (If you've never been to the store, go. They know their stuff. And they're super nice!) I had been to see them a couple months before so I could get a pair of running shoes that fit my gait. Next thing I know, I'm adding a second pair of shoes and a water belt to my mental list of things I will need before the season is over.

On the walk from our meeting place to the Rose Bowl loop, I was trying to keep pace with the front of the group and a teammate I was conversing with. I could feel my shins start to ache. In the back of my mind, I heard a little voice berating my need to push myself, but I shushed it and continued on my way.

Practice #1: Pace Assessment, Also Known As Hell

I know, I know. I'm behind on my posts. But I do have a good reason! Basically, Facebook marked sharing my fundraiser page as spam and disabled my account. I've spent the last two, almost three, weeks sending at least five "Contact Us" forms a day since just emails can't get through, nor is there a phone number to reach because Facebook is such a "small" company that their meager number of employees can't handle dealing with users on a personal basis. I kid you not, that is their reasoning. Hopefully everything will be sorted soon.

So what does a Saturday morning practice look like?

Well, it starts with me rolling out of bed at 6:30 in the morning. That in itself is a miracle because I am not a morning person. Still, I made it on time to the Rose Bowl and proceeded with all that fun first day, meet everyone, finalize everything stuff.

Now, every morning has a similar structure. Everyone checks in and then we gather around to discuss what needs to be discussed. The first week, it was meeting the staff, who were all once participants like us. Then, we hear from someone on the team who and what their connection to the cause is. After they share that, we all get a ribbon with the honored teammate's name on it. And we wear them all season. The idea is that we have more and more reasons to fund raise for cancer research and to keep running. These moments have never failed to bring tears to my eyes and wearing those ribbons truly does remind me why I am doing this. I can't wait to have all of them at the end of the season.

I'm Going on an Adventure!

No, I'm not setting off to save Middle Earth. That would be pretty amazing though. I am, however, setting out to help eliminate blood cancer and learn how to run a race.

You might have noticed - or maybe you haven't, that's okay - I've run a few 5Ks recently. Why? I'm not really sure. I hated running as a child. I puked on my sixth grade teacher after being forced to run a mile in P.E. I dreaded running days throughout middle and high school. I managed to worm my way into a bowling class that counted as P.E. just so I wouldn't be required to run. College didn't change anything. I took a dance class to fill the requirement and, if I worked out, I was doing Zumba.

In short: if you had told me two years ago I would be running races now, I would have politely asked you to return to whatever mental asylum you had escaped from and please stop spouting such wild tales.

I digress.

Whatever pushed me to do that first 5K led me into doing more. Crossing the finish line was exciting. And each time I crossed, a little voice that grew progressively louder told me I could go longer. I could do a 10K. Look how fun the 5 was, the 10 would obviously be double that! So, the next obvious move was to sign up for the Tinkerbell 10K at Disneyland. But even that wasn't enough.

I have drunk the Kool Aid.

A friend of mine told me he was going to be a coach for this season's Team in Training. They were going to be doing the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. Train with people who know what they're doing? Raise money for blood cancer research? Sign me up! So . . . that's what I'm doing.