Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Nashville Race Recap Part 2 (Friday)

We decided to sleep in on Friday, well everyone except Gary he is up at 3:30am every morning!!! I think it was a little after 8:00 when we all started waking up and moving around. We headed downstairs to indulge in the complimentary breakfast buffet. It was ok, nothing special but it was nice. Gary had already been up for hours and again had been socializing with the Hotel Staff. We headed back to our room, we took turns showering and I think both Arland and Robert ended up using Gary's room.
When we went outside to find Gary, there he was washing my car!! I have a picture but I can't post it from work. It was just too funny for words and how sweet of him to do that for me!!!!

We decided to go ahead and head to the Expo, we drove but really it probably would have been easier to walk, traffic and parking was a mess!!! When we went to Chicago we went to the Expo on Friday and missed a lot of the crowds, well we made up for it in Nashville. It was PACKED!!!! We got all of our stuff and then just started wandering around. Luckily we all had phones so it was fairly easy to keep up with everyone. I was really good and didn't buy anything... well until later when I bought a new Sugoi running top. I think we had been there for a couple of hours when Brenda called to let us know they had made it to the Hotel. The first plan was we would go back to the Hotel and meet them... then we decided they would come to the Convention Center we would meet and go get lunch. Everyone was starved and I was starting to get a little clausterphobic from the crowds. It took a little work to get everyone rounded up and then find the girls. We headed to Panera Bread which was right across the street but it was packed so we walked down Broadway and found a place called "Bailey's Bar & Grill" we thought perfect!!! Anything with the name Bailey had to be good... right???? Well not exactly, it took well over an hour for us to get our food and it was freezing in there, but as usual we made the best of it and were pretty much just happy to be sitting down. After lunch we headed back to the Expo and spent a couple more hours there, we also met with the pace group leaders. Finally we were all pretty exhausted and headed back to the Hotel. When we went to the Expo in Chicago we went 2 days before the Race and although it was busy it was easy to get around and see everything, Nashville the day before the race is a madhouse!!! Next year we are going on Thursday!

Several of us needed to go to Wal-Mart or at least a grocery store so Robert drove Gary, Michele, Kelly and I to the local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. We didn't stay long got what we needed and headed back to the Hotel.
We decided we would go back to the Gerst Haus for a light dinner. We love that place!!!! Our waitress Shelly was great and took special care of us, even bringing us a round of pickle juice shots. Gary always has pickle juice during a long race, it is supposed to help with cramps, we all decided we had to have some as well. I LOVE pickles so I knew i would like it but most everyone else was suprised that they liked it as much as they did. Shelly of course thought we were all crazy!! LOL

We were anxious to get back to the Hotel and try to get to bed at a decent time. We had orginally planned to be in bed by 8:30 but we were still walking back to the hotel at that time. It was a much quieter walk back this time compared to Thursday night when we were all howling with laughter the whole time, but we were still pretty lively talking about the next day.

Once back in the room we finished our race preperations, putting chips on shoes, pinning race numbers on shirts, etc. I think we finally had lights out at about 9:30.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Nashville Recap part 1( Thursday)

We were planning on leaving around 9:30 on Thursday morning, but we weren't too worried about leaving exactly on time. Good thing! LOL I needed to run to Magness Creek and pick up Gary's granola from Andrea and I needed some good luck hugs and kisses from Livia and Kylie! By the time we got all of that done it was already 9:30 and we still had to pick up Robert and Kelly. They had their own errands to take care of and the timing worked out just about perfect that they were ready to go when we arrived.
Kelly and I rode in the backseat and talked and laughed pretty much the whole way to Nashville. If you have to take a long trip Kelly is a great travel partner!!

Gary had also left Thursday morning and we were keeping in touch throughout the trip. We had left earlier than he did but we stopped for lunch and Gary ended up getting to Nashville before we did.

Kelly and Robert had reservations at a Day's Inn but were planning to check to see if there were any cancellations at our Hotel "The Ramada at the Stadium" so we went there first. Gary was waiting for us outside and had already befriended most of the Hotel staff by the time we arrived!
We got our room key and we all headed that way, our room was HUGE!!! it had two beds and was just very roomy so we all decided that Kelly and Robert would just stay with us since there hadn't been any cancellations. It really did work out well and the room was large enough that we were never on top of each other.

On the way to the Hotel we passed by the Gerst Haus.. a German restaurant that I remembered going to when I lived in Nashville in 93-94. We decided to go there Thursday night, most people probably wouldn't think of having German food before a marathon but they had a large menu and it was easy to eat light and healthy. Of course not everyone ate light!! LOL and we did partake in a bit of beer. I had the grilled Salmon salad and it was really very good! After dinner we wanted to go somewhere to dance... again not something you would think of 2 nights before a marathon but we were being rebels!! The staff had pointed us to one "nightclub" but as we got close it looked pretty dead so we headed back to the Hotel. They told us we were just about a mile away from downtown and there was a pedestrian bridge we could use. So off we went, but not without a ton of laughing and practically rolling in the streets!! The pedestrian Bridge was interesting, it was beautifully lit and the view of downtown was great!!! the interesting part was it seemed to be a sort of Lover's Lane... there were ton's of couples, quite a few of them "making out". LOL

Once we hit Broadway we just kind of wandered around, it was Thursday night so although there were quite a few people out and about it wasn't very exciting. We did end up in Coyote Ugly. It was OK, I think the guys probably enjoyed it more than Kelly and I did!! LOL

After that we were starting to get tired so decided to head back to the Hotel... Gary was pretty dissapointed that we didnt' get to go dancing and was pouting all the way back!! LOL He is SO funny and such a great guy!!

I think we managed to get in bed by 11:00 or so. I was a little nervous about what it would be like all of us sharing a room and preparing for bed but it all worked out great with no problems.
Once we settled down and the lights were out we all said good night "Walton's" style. G'night John Boy etc.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Nashville

Nashville was great!! We had such a good time the whole weekend, starting on the drive over on Thursday. I laughed so much this weekend that my stomach still hurts!!
The planets were not aligned properly for me to have a great race time wise but I had a great race fun wise!!
I made many new friends and finished feeling pretty good. I went into the race with a bit of a chest cold and a pain in my upper right calf that I have actually had for a couple of weeks. I felt it the first 15 or so miles but after that my feet hurt so bad I didn't feel it anymore!! LOL

A full report will come tomorrow but just wanted everyone to know I had a great weekend and a great Race!!
Finish time was 5:18 and some seconds.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Massage, Breakfast & Running With a little High School Musical thrown in.

Friday was a rest day and I scheduled massages for Arland and I with Christy. My legs were pretty much toast from over 200 squats, countless walking lunges and some other leg routines on the exercise ball that we did Wednesday with Andrea and Latin Dance class with Jane.
Thursday night at the WCR clinic was a challenge, I felt like my legs were concrete stumps and honestly didn't know how I was going to run.... but somehow I did manage 5 miles with speed work. Friday morning I woke up still sore, even more so. I was a little worried about the massage, deep tissue massage can be painful on it's own add in tortured legs and well you can just imagine.
Poor Christy, my right quad was really tight and the muscle had knotted up I guess. She had done one pass and when it was done I start laughing uncontrollably, she asked if I was ok. I told her "that hurt so had it almost tickled". Well that knot didn't want to be worked out and it was several minutes of torture and uncontrollable laughter. I had no control over it, I've always been this way, either I'm going to laugh or cry and I never know which one it is going to be. Christy did eventually manage to get the quad straightened out, but she said my hips and glutes were really really tight and she was suprised I wasn't having lower back pain.
After the massage it was even harder to walk than it already had been. Kelly had to work Saturday morning and we had talked about meeting at 6:00am to get in 6 for her and 8 or 9 for me. Well after the massage I honestly didnt' know if I would be able to run in the morning especially since it was supposed to be pretty chilly.
We decided we would run at 2:00 in the afternoon instead. It was nice to be able to sleep in on Saturday morning. I got up and enjoyed a quiet morning and then went to "The Diner" to meet several of the Cruisers who did run on Saturday morning for breakfast. As usual that was a lot of fun, Rick also came along and I think I have convinced him to come to Jane's Latin Dance after he returns from his next "TDY". Arland and Reginald were also able to join us for breakfast. I tried to be sensible with my breakfast knowing that I had an afternoon run, but they kept refilling my coffee cup before I could even half empty it so there was no telling how much coffee I drank... and it did have an effect during the run!!

I don't think I realized it was going to get as warm as it did but we needed a good run in warmer temps because we don't know what the weather is going to be in Nashville. Arland had "hydrant clearing" in the morning so he planned to run with us as well. We ended up getting a little bit of a late start and it was 80 degrees with bright sunshine. Our saving grace was the wind, normally I hate the wind and it was VERY windy but it helped keep us from overheating. We kind of made up our own route and got in 7.5 miles with 10:30 avg pace. It would have been faster if the stomach monster hadn't hit me about mile 3 until about 4.8... I had to stop frequently to let the feeling pass, really to squeeze really hard and hope nothing would come out!! Gross I know :( So after a stop at the Community Center I felt much better and we were able to pick up the pace for the last couple of miles.

Friday night as part of Kylie's birthday weekend Tracy, Livia, Jeff, Kylie, Brett and I went to High School Musical on Ice. It was really fun, I've been to the play and I really liked the on ice version even better. Kylie loved it and even Daddy and Brett enjoyed themselves.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Working..running..swimming..dancing..playing.....

Gosh I have gotten so far behind on my blog. I have had a ton of things to blog about but work has really been keeping me busy during the day and then everything else keeps me busy in the evenings so I ran out of time for blogging. There have been many things I have thought oh I can't wait to blog about that... of course now i've forgotten most of them but here are some highlights of the past 10 or so days.....


Hogeye 1/2 Marathon.
This was a training run it was also a way to get points for the Grand Prix. We had such a blast!!! The race was ok, very hilly which I knew going in and am not going to whine about. The hills were the main reason I wanted to run the Hogeye. Michele and I wore matching Pink skirts and tops and we got so many compliments!!! Everyone was telling us how cute we were and how much they loved our skirts. I had a few issues during the run we had to stop at a port a potty within the first couple of miles, it was a construction site port a potty and there was a line, we lost five minutes at that stop and then there was one more around mile 7. When we got to the Town Square just before the finish line the girls, Brenda, Bailey, Rock, Jackie, Arland were all waiting for us to cheer us in.
After the race we went to Jose's and had lunch and margaritas... I had 2 huge margaritas and they were so good!! I have pictures but i'll have to post them later. The Dinner the night before and the lunch after the race were the best part of the weekend... we all laughed so much!!! Bailey said something Saturday night that was so funny that Jackie was doubled over leaning against a building with tears streaming down her face she was laughing so hard!!! It was the BEST!!!!

Latin Dance Class -
I am so loving this class, it is a great low impact workout, it really works your legs and your ab's and Jane is just such a great instructor!!!! Last night there were 27 people in class! The only bummer is the sound system and the AC.. neither work very well.

Swimming -
Michele, Kelly and I go to the pool after Dance class and swim, play for a while and then we go hang out in the arthrtis pool. I always feel so good afterwards!!! Last Sunday a big group of Cruisers met at the CC pool and had water running lessons. Karen one of the Cruisers has been going to PT at UAMS and also taking some additional classes and has leared the proper way to pool run and some other cool exercies.
For Livia's birthday I bought her a 6 month membership at the CC and she has started swimming a lot. I didn't know until recently that she used to swim competiviely in Brazil. That girl never ceases to amaze me!

Andrea-
I've been working out with Andrea for a couple of months now, at first I focused only on upper body and core, but a few weeks ago I told her I wanted to start doing a leg workout on Wednesdays. It works out really well, my legs are recovered in time for our weekend long runs and it is the day after our Tuesday night Flyers clinic so it doesn't interfer with speed work. I can definately see a difference in my legs already!
Between Andrea's class, Latin Dance Class and Swimming Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week.
Livia and Kylie also workout with us and that just adds to the fun. Kylie is quite the little exercise girl!!

Running-
We have had some great runs some fast some slow some easy some hard.
Last Saturday was our last "long" run before Nashville. The plan was to do the 10.5 mile loop around Cabot and then add on. Part of the loop includes a couple of miles on Hwy 321, this stretch of the hwy is very slanted and Michele can't and won't run on it so we went off on our own, we cut down Kerr station and then met up with the group on 1st street. Gary and Curtis also came to run, Gary was with the fast girls and Curtis and Arland would run together for a while and then seperate. We said hi to the girls and Gary and kept on running to find Arland, first we saw Curtis and then Arland wasn't too far behind him. Arland was on a mission though and he left us in his dust!! Michele and I were just having a nice easy run! When we got to the Rail Road Tracks Curtis stopped and ran back towards us, he didn't know where to go. This was his first time running this loop. We stopped at the Phillips 66 by the High School so I could use the facilities. When I came out Michele and Curtis told me that Arland had gone on... like I said he was on a mission. Curtis is so sweet he said he wanted to run with us and he kept us entertained for a while. Eventually we could see Arland up ahead and Curtis decided to catch him. It worked out for us because we didn't want to go back to the school, we would have if Curtis stayed with us but when he went on we took a tour of Cabot and ended up with 14 before we got back to the school. We decided that 14 was as good as 15 and called it a run. Oh I almost forgot Michele and I almost got run over when we were running on Mt. Carmel, it was just before the big hill when all of a sudden a woman in a small goldish color car just starts heading straight for us. Not you know kind of side swiping us but heading straight for us. Michele and I both jumped back and obviously she didn't run us over but let me tell you that scared the crap out of me. The adreneline made my legs weak and the wind was gusting so that was a tough run up the hill!! I never really recovered and the rest of the run was pretty tough.

Fun-
We've had many trips to Star Buck's and Daily Grind... my favorite part of running is the after part. I love hanging out with everyone and having a big Latte. Last Saturday Livia, Kylie and I went to lunch and shopping together. We were on a mission to find a new paint color for my guest bathroom... we went to Sherwin Williams and were on our way to Home Depot when Cheryl called and said she was also headed to HD... so we met up and she helped us look at paint colors and light fixtures. I'm hoping that Livia is going to paint and decorate for me while we are in Nashville.

Today is my wedding Anniversary and Kylie's birthday. Kylie is 5 and Arland and I have been married for 9 years. :)
Life is great!!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Capital City Classic 10K

Saturday was my second time to run the CCC 10K and I was excited to try to beat my previous 10K PR. This is a really nice course mostly flat but can be pretty windy in spots, we are right next to the Arkansas River after all.

It seems like my running has been all over the place lately, one day it feels good the next it doesnt. A big part of that is because of all the speedwork and longs runs we've been doing. I guess sometimes I forget that speedwork is supposed to be hard!! and since the WCR clinic i've been doing 3 nights a week of speedwork. Dennis helped put things into perspective for me on Tuesday night and i've been feeling better about how i've been feeling.
I will admit though on Thursday night when we were doing our warm up run it felt really hard and I thought to myself how am I going to run fast for 6 miles on Saturday?????????

Kelly had to take the weekend off because of knee issues, actually she is probably going to be off for a couple of weeks but we are still waiting for the final diagonsis.

Bailey and Robert rode with us to Little Rock and we got there plenty early!! We ran to pick up our bib's and t-shirts and we ran into Josh and Kellie, poor Kellie her foot has been bothering her for a couple of weeks. She had been planning on running the 10K but during the warm up she decided it just wasnt' worth it she needs to rest and let her foot heal.
We also ran into Gary and Curtis, Heather S and several others. We did kind of an informal warm up by basically running back and forth between the car's and the start line. I did a couple of strides but nothing major, actually I wish I had done a better warm up but everything turned out ok anyway.

Michele and James finally arrived and we all lined up, I had Kelsey's I-pod on and ready to go... that thing was a life saver!!!
My plan was to start off slow and then build up speed, Michele and I had talked about this quite a bit the day before and then we finally said we might as well shut up, we know we will start too fast so may as well get used to it!

We moved back a little bit from the front before the race started and so we were a few seconds behind everyone else from the beginning.
My goal for this race was 59:59 last year my time was 1:04:11 and back in November I had set my 10K PR with a 1:01:05.
I knew I needed to keep a 9:40 avg pace to meet my goal. I haven't seen Cheryl since I got my new Garmin so I don't have all the screens set up so I never knew what my avg pace was during the race, I did know that I never saw anything slower than a 9:30 whenever I would glance at it which wasn't very often.

The weather was perfect and I had on my zebra skirt sports skirt and a black short sleeve tech shirt. I was comfortable the whole time I never got too hot or too cold.
Michele and I stayed together the first 4.5 miles, we both had on i-pod's but we only put one ear bud in so we were still able to have a little bit of conversation. Michele is really very fast and has a lot of endurance but she doesn't love racing and really doesn't care about speed so she was happy to stay with me. I had told her several times to go on but she waited until about 4.5 miles. I had started to fatigue a little bit but was still feeling pretty strong but even on my best day and Michele's worst day she is still faster!! LOL At the start they had warned us about loose dogs around the 4 mile marker, I think one of the reasons Michele stayed with me until 4.5 was so she could protect me from the dogs!! LOL It never fails that if a dog is out he is going to come straight for me, as soon as we saw the dogs Michele moved closer to the road and had her arm, I guess ready to catch me if I fell?? Luckily these dogs never did really bother us.
We had run a little bit with James Michele's husband and the whole time I could see Arland just ahead of us, I was trying to reel him in but he was really having a great race. I will admit it is frustrating sometimes to see him take walk breaks and yet he still finished ahead of me! LOL We did catch up with him and ran with him for a little bit but his long legs are just too much for me.
I actually was more than fine to be running by myself, I had Kelsey's I-pod and my thoughts and I felt good. It also felt good to pass a lot of people toward the end who had passed me in the beginning. The last .25 or so of the race is kind of hard mentally, you can hear people and you can see the finish line but it seems to take forever to get there. As I was approaching several Cruisers who had finished before me were walking back and they all offered encouragment that was really nice but the best was when I saw Bailey and she starting running with me and helped give me energy for that final push. I could see the finish line and it was 57:xxxx I was so excited I kept thinking on my goodness i'm going to finish under 59:00... I didnt' have a lot left but I did try to sprint it in at the end and my final time was 58:17. I was so excited!!! It such a great feeling to have a goal and to actually exceed it!
Everyone had done really well at this race, Michele ended up with 57:11 and Heather S finished in 56:??, Arland 58:01 etc.
Oh and Josh our superstar he finished in 36:43 the really nice thing is after the race when we were talking he was as excited for me over my time as he was for himself... ok maybe not as excited but he really is such a nice guy and so encouraging to everyone and that is such a refreshing change from some fast runners who look down on slower runners.
They had beer and pizza for post race refreshments and I couldn't stomach a beer but I did have a slice of pizza. This is really a great race they do a great job putting it together!!
When it was time for the Awards ceremony we all snuggled together and had a great time cheering as quite a few Cruisers won awards... including yours truly who won 2nd in the 45-49 female age group.

After the Awards ceremony we hurried home so we could get ready for round two... The Hogeye 1/2 in Fayetville. I have pictures and will try to post them later this evening.

Splits:
1- 9:11
2- 9:15
3- 9:18
4- 9:18
5- 9:10
6- 9:02
my garmin showed 6.36 miles instead of 6.2
.36-3:32
It always makes me happy when my last mile is my fastest! :)

Whirlwind

Last Thursday night was a rough one in Central Arkansas I think they have confirmed that 6 tornado's touched down and one of them was in Cabot just a few blocks from our house. First our Satellite went out and then the power, luckily Arland is a Hamm radio operator and a Volunteer FF so we knew exactly what was going on... too much maybe! Storm spotters had spotted a tornado heading our way so we headed to the hall bathroom with pillows and blankets, I got in the bathtub but Arland never did. We did hear the tornado but luckily it didn't hit us. I didn't realize how close it was until the next day.
Friday morning we woke up to no power at home or work. I knew I needed some coffee so I headed to Daily Grind and bumped into Michele and a friend of her's. We ended up staying and chatting for a very long time!! I spent the rest of the Afternoon at Livia's house. Brett and I had a nice long chat and then the girls came home and I got to play with Kylie.

I headed home about 5:00, I talked to Kelly and we arranged to go out to dinner. We had a big race weekend ahead of us so we all went to Roma's to carbo load. Kelly and Robert's daughter Kelsey also joined us and she loaded my phone up with some new ring tones and even loaned me her i-pod to wear at the 10K the next day. She's a sweetheart!!

Shirley thank you for the great comment on my last post!!! I have admired you for so long and for you to say that I helped to motivate you meant a lot to me!!! Thanks!!!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Tuesday Night Flyers

We had a small group last night. Cheryl is away in sunny Florida on a business trip and the Harrell family had a sporting event to attend. The one's who did make it were -
Cindy
Brenda
Bailey
Andrea
Kellie (Mrs. Holt)
Josh
Arland
Annette

Advanced workout was 1.5 mile warm up with 4 strides 4 high knees and 6x400 at interval pace.
Indermediate workout was 1.5 mile warm up with 4 strides 2 high knees and 2x200 3x400 1x200
After a hilly 20 miler, and then hill repeats the next day I decided to be intermediate along with Arland and Kellie.
Kellie and I ran together for the warm-up, we were running a pretty fast pace and Arland decided to not keep up with us, although he was still running a good pace!! We ended up with a 9:20 avg pace for our 1.75 mile warm up.
Kellie was going to hang with me and Arland for the workout... she didn't have a watch or anything and I don't think she realized how fast she really is.
We all three did the 200's together, well Kellie and Arland finished ahead of me but not by too much. The first 200 was too fast 56 seconds, according to my chart I am supposed to run 200 interval pace at 1:05. The second 200 was 1:00even so a little closer to what I was supposed to run.
Dennis was watching us making sure we had correct form and we werent' dying or anything.
The first 400 2:01 a little fast, was supposed to be 2:09.
Second 400 2:00 a little fast again
Third 400 2:05 a little closer to my goal pace....
Fourth 400 2:04 pretty consistent..
We were only supposed to do 3 but decided to do an extra one.
After the second 400 Kellie started running with the fast girls.... and she kept up with them no problem. Although when I talked to her she said it was really hard, but interval pace is supposed to be hard so I was really proud of her. She has really been selling herself short she has a lot of natural ability and is going to be very fast!
Because we did 4x400 instead of the 3 on the plan Dennis told us we didn't have to do our last 200.

All of the 400's were hard and while I was running them I kept thinking why is this so hard, why can't i make my legs go any faster. I was also starting to get kind of breathless on the last two, it was kind of freaking me out, I was thinking I had developed Asthma or something but after talking to Dennis I felt better. He said that is how it was supposed to feel. The Interval pace is supposed to help develop our VO2 max.

After the work out was done we all headed back to the school together. At first I was thinking I don't know how I am going to be able to run all the way back, I even thought about walking at one point, but I guess I got my second wind because not only did I keep running I ran a little faster and before you know it I am with Cindy and Brenda and the others had fallen behind. I really just wanted it to be over and when I saw that little white building just before you get to the school it made me want to run faster.... kind of like when I see a port a pottie in the distance! LOL I don't know what my pace was because I forgot to stop my Garmin.

It was a hard workout but I felt great afterwards. No beating myself up because I was too slow or it was too hard. It was supposed to be hard and yes I am not as fast as the others but I was hitting the #'s that I was supposed to so I feel good about that.

Today was another good leg workout with Andrea, and tonight is Latin Dance and swimming. :)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Run Up... Run Down - Repeat

Coach Dennis was back last night for our WCR clinic. He had travelled to Portland Oregon the week before and although Brenda did an EXCELLENT job as our coach it was great to see Dennis. It wasn't so great to see what he had planned for us!! Actually we already knew we were doing Hill Repeats, Dennis and Brenda always send out e-mails ahead of time letting us know what to expect.

It was warm yesterday but when I got home I felt chilled so I chose a pair of capri running pants and a short sleeve shirt to run in. Luckily I had to go out to my car to get something and I realized how warm and muggy it was so I changed into a skirt and sleeveless shirt.
Michele and I had talked earlier in the afternoon and we both agreeded that we would not run to and from the clinic. Michele was feeling achy and we both had a chaffing issues, her's were worse than mine!

When I got to the clinic the first person I looked for was Jane, I had to give her a big hug and thank her for our conversation on Saturday afternoon. I called Jane Saturday to ask her some questions about what her Marathon plan had been for Little Rock. She finished LR in just under 5 hours and she looked so great, I just knew I needed to talk to her. She really gave me some good advice and just helped calm some of my nerves. I love Jane and am so thankful that through the WCR clinic and Cabot Cruisers we have become friends.

Kelly's knee is giving her problems so she brought Kelsey to the clinic and she stayed and cheered us on but she didn't run. She won't be able to run tonight or tomorrow either between work and sporting events she is booked up so hopefully a couple nights of rest and the knee will feel better.

Dennis gathered us together and sent us off for a 1.5 mile warm-up while he went to the hill to wait for us. We did the warm-up pretty fast but I was able to hang on, until the last little bit when my stomach started up, luckily I just slowed down a little and it went away.
After we all finished the warm-up Dennis went over the finer points of uphill and downhill running. He told several ladies they were going to do 6 repeats and then he touched me on the shoulder and told me to do 8.... EIGHT are you kidding me???? Jackie and Brenda both said she ran a hilly 20 miler but I swear Dennis didn't hear them. Oh well, I decided I would just do six anyway.
Dennis has always complimented my hill running technique and last night he was concentrating on the new ladies, I guess I was doing ok becasue he never corrected me. I did hear him doing a lot of correcting for several of our ladies.
Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and Down... sheesh it was hard! Michele had missed the first two hill repeats, she had been talking to Vicki. When I got to # 6 she was only at # 4 so I told her I would run one more so she could have 5. She really didn't care but I made her do it anyway... for both of us. By this time Brenda was running with us and she said she was going to do whatever we did. I swore after number 7 that I was done but when we got to the bottom of the hill I just had to make it an even number and do one more. I ended up with the eight that Dennis had told me to do. I was glad I made myself do those last two repeats!! Once everyone was finished we talked for a few minutes with Dennis and then we had a 1 mile cool down. We ended up with 4 miles for the night.
Brenda, Kelly and I have known for a long time how lucky we are to have Dennis as our Coach. I hope the women in our WCR clinic realize how lucky they are, I think they do. I know Michele does, before the clinic started she was very nervous about Dennis being our Coach but I know she loves him now!!

Yesterday with Andrea we did a full upper body workout... Tracy, Livia and Kylie joined me. After the workout Andrea made us protein shakes and we all chatted for a bit. I enjoyed working one on one with Andrea but I also love having others join me. I really love that Kylie is coming along, she got out her own bench and weights and she did push ups and crunches as well. I hope that exercise will always just be an automatic lifestyle choice for her.

Tonight is Interval pace training... OUCH!!! LOL