Join the club!

Straight to the point, a few weeks ago, whilst on my 'take it easy, chill out, run easy, before we get stuck into Houston marathon training' phase I power washed the...whole house, cleaned like crazy, organized the kids room and started a running club. I find it hard to do nothing. I was so frustrated 18 months ago when I was looking around for a club to run with and discovered Kingwood doesn't have one! What the.... There is one but it's only run for part of the year, who only runs for part of the year? Not me! 

I have since heard so many women tell me how they run, want to run, used to run, etc etc etc. I see countless women out running with maybe one other running buddy and would wonder what happens when her buddy goes on holiday or just can't make it? Does she go out solo? I mean I do but I'm big and tough and not scared of the boogie man ;) 

The school corridor at my sons preschool was filled with running clad women who would talk about the half they were training for, etc. Who with I would wonder, I mean I have my running buddy's now but it took a while to weed them out! 

So somebody ought to start a club, just a virtual 'noticeboard' where women can hook up with like paced friends and get their miles in safely and with good company. 

So I did. 

You should be aware that I am the biggest commitment phobe on the planet (I have no idea how I find myself married and with 3 kids - it's a mystery to me!) so I started this thing with the intention of kicking it off, pushing it a bit initially and once it had a few members leaving it up to them to make it work for them. I am still in that place, except I find myself expecting a delivery of 'wearables' from our sponsors tomorrow and my coach, coach Doug is going to be a kind of virtual coach, ask the expert type deal and I am even going to create a meet up with one of the new members for next week. Hey, baby steps for me! 

The newest member of our now 28 strong club, is a 22 year old college grad who recently moved from Colorado and has times not too far off my own! Excited much?! If I play my cards right I could be up to 4 fast ladies to train with :)

I am half way though Augusts training schedule now, H and I are following the same schedule or we were, she has made a few tweaks to hers whilst I soldier on with it unadjusted. 

I am on around 40+/50+ miles a week for August and am itching to get some big miles in but Coach Doug is teaching me patience. ugh. I feel like I've been waiting forever and I am green with envy when I read all these other blogs and their authors 70+ miles a week and more. But I trust Doug and the last thing I want is to get hurt so I will continue to behave myself (not easy for someone who firmly believes rules are made to be broken). 

Monday was a tough session on the treadmill:

2 miles w/u, 8x 2mins at 6:15 pace on an incline of 4, with 1 min recovery in-between. Then 1 mile w/d, total mileage 6.

I had to put the incline down to 2 towards the end of the 5th rep, it was that or fall off the ******! It made the rest of the session much more doable. That 4 incline kills! I will try again next Monday though, what doesn't kill me....

Today is Fun FriWednesday so I got to do threshold again:

1 mile w/u 5 miles at 6:30 pace then 1 mile w/d for 7 total.

I love covering that treadmill in sweat and being vaguely aware of the sideway glances whilst the early morning Y attendees wonder what on earth the crazy girl is up to! 

I was up at 5am and running by 6am, I find it hard to do threshold at anything before 6am and my hubbie kindly forwent his spin class so I could have an extra hour in bed before hitting this at a slightly more reasonable time! (if he goes to spin I have to be home for 6am so he can make the 6:15 class). I will do my easy 6 miles tomorrow at around 9am so he can have the early slot for spin - it's all works out somehow! 

I get to string 6 of those wonderful threshold miles together next Wednesday, that will be the most I've done at that kind of pace (6:30-6:40, of course I do them at 6:30) for a million years. 

I used to have an 8 mile route from my house in Scotland that I ran a lot when I was a teenager. I can't wait to be able to string that many together and have it feel as good as it did then! My best run ever, was on that 8 mile route. I mean better than winning the Scottish Schools cross country championships, better than representing my country better than any of the thousands of other training runs I've ever done. 

I felt good one day, the weather was good and everything just felt right. It was time to have a crack at my best time which was 57mins 5?secs. So I went for it and the first 6 miles were so easy and blisteringly faster than I'd ever been before. Then something happened and it went from being easy to being the easiest I had ever felt. I was pushing even harder, as hard as I could and it felt fantastic. I remember as clear as a bell thinking how the only thing limiting me was my cadence, literally how fast I could turn my legs over. Finished it in 53:54 (it was 8.1, according to my dads car, no garmins in those days!) so 6:39 pace. I still remember all these stats, worked out in my bedroom the minute after I finished but not before I ran passed my dad in the living room and told him 'beat my best time..... 53:54'. His jaw hit the ground :D

I never thought I'd be running those kind of paces again but it's coming. I feel so strong and still see changes in my legs, arms, core..entire body on a month to month basis! I can't help but feel if I was able to do 3:13 with 12 months training I must have a to more in there. 

I get so much from running, I am so grateful I have rediscovered it. I can't believe I deserted my first love for so many years! I want every woman, mum, girl to run and get from it all that I do. They just have to be slower than me ;)