Okay, it's Joy here; I just heard from Nomi who is down with the flu. She says she hasn't run in 3 days, and I hope she'll be back at it soon so that this blog isn't just full of me. But in the meantime, it's me, me, and more me. So here I go with today's training details:
The alarm went off at 5am so that I could run and possibly beat the insane heat of the day. But, of course, that wasn't possible. After my breakfast smoothie and cup of coffee, I was out the door for the run by around 6am, and the sun had been up for about 1/2 an hour by that point, and it was already damn hot. So I soldiered on with ice in my water bottle and hoped for the best as my fingers were crossed that my sweat wouldn't melt off my sunscreen.
Today I ran a 20min. easy warm up with two strides (strides being the 100m. faster run) to loosen up my legs. Then I did 6 hill repeats. So what this means is: I found a hill close to where I live (well, actually a 20min. run away) and then I ran up it as fast as I could. When I got to the top, I slowed down a bit and then ran back down the hill as slowly as possible so that I could catch my breath. It took me about 1min. to run up the hill. Then when I got to the bottom, I turned around and did it all over again. I did that a total of 6 times before doing the easy 20mins. home with another 2 strides worked in. The theory behind the hill work is that it builds muscular strength (and eventually speed as well). I don't know about all that, but it was hard, and in the heat I certainly felt like I was having a good workout.
After getting home from that workout, which took a total of 53mins. door-to-door, I ate some cereal, had some more coffee, stretched, and then showered. Then at 9am I went for a 2 hour easy bike ride. Well, easy that is until the turnaround point 1 hour into the ride when I FELL OVER FROM STANDING STILL. I average about one fall for every bike ride, and I swear I'm trying to get better and better, but it's still a problem for me. The glitch is that I have pedals that I clip into, and while I remember to clip one foot out whenever I approach an intersection or stopping point, I sometimes don't lean over to the side of my clipped out foot, and so if something distracts me (like today when my right foot was clipped out, but I looked to my watch on my left hand), then I might tip over. While I've been lucky enough to escape these little mishaps with nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes, it is rather embarrassing. Luckily for me, my riding partner today was really kind and didn't laugh at me. In fact, she even offered me a tissue so that I could dab my bleeding leg wound where I jabbed my leg with my own bike crank.
As I resolve to become a better runner while training for this 1/2 marathon, my other resolution is to learn how to ride my bike without falling off!
Over and out,
Joy
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