It was a fairly dreary weekend, weather-wise around here, though obviously not nearly as bad as in some other places. Seeing all the inland flooding after Hurricane Helene I keep thinking back to the trip we took through Vermont in August 2011, right after Hurricane Irene. I know it took a long time for those communities to recover. Here’s hoping it’s faster in western NC and elsewhere this time around.
Five kids generate a lot of activity, rain or not. Some fun news: The 4-year-old is really, truly riding his bike. He’d been doing it balance-bike style for a while and had figured out how to glide around that way. Then he started experimenting with putting his feet on the pedals, and now he’s got it. I am very proud of him!
On Friday night we hosted a gaggle of 14- and 15-year-old boys, who ate pizza and cake, played pool and ping pong and hide-and-seek out in the yard. My husband and I sat by the fire pit while they were racing around. They were all quite polite and well-behaved, which was nice.
On Saturday I got up and went to the same local nature trail where I’ve been doing my long runs in previous weeks. The forecast said the rain would be over by 9 a.m. but it really wasn’t. There was a drizzle the whole time. And it was a long time, because I ran 12 miles. I’ve decided that my previous half-marathon strategy of doing long runs up to 10 miles is just not working. I get to 10 miles during the race and fall apart. So I wanted to do at least 11-12 miles during a training run, and I did. I was oddly tired at around 3 miles, which made me wonder how on earth I was going to keep running for another 90 minutes, but then I got a bit more pep in my step. The fall colors were quite pretty in the rain; yellow stands out more against a gray sky. I think I will try to do one more long-ish run before the race (but probably not 12 miles again).
In the afternoon, my husband took the 9-year-old to his first swim meet. I took the older boys to get hair cuts, and then I drove the 17-year-old to a vocal practice and off to the Devon Horse Show’s dressage event, where he and 5 other kids sang the national anthem together. I had never really watched dressage, so even though I didn’t see much of it, this was an educational experience. And hey, I got to watch from the VIP hospitality suite, since that’s where the kids needed to wait before going out on the field (or whatever you call it…I’m not familiar with equestrian terminology…). They sounded great! We made a quick Starbucks stop after (right before it closed) and then 6 out of 7 members of my family went in the hot tub, which turned out to be too many people in the hot tub. This was not relaxing. I think I need to just find a time when no one is watching and go in on my own.
Anyway…Sunday was church and then off to a studio in West Chester for family photos. I know I have written here before that family photos are one of those things that I’m glad to have done even though it is very little fun at the moment. My future self will be happy to have the photos…so experiencing Laura needs to steel herself for the complaining and misbehavior during the photos themselves. It could have been worse. The kids looked nice. Hopefully they turn out well!
Many many years ago when I did a half ironman I made sure to make my long run and long bike longer than the actual distance. I think my longest run was 15 miles, and my longest bike was 70 miles. I know that it’s *possible* to run a 1/2 marathon with less training (I did a 20k with my longest run before that only 8 miles), but those last few miles really really hurt if you do that. I also think you somewhat increase your risk of injury. At my advanced age I find that my pain and soreness after a run are greatly magnified if I increase (speed *or* distance) by more than 5% any given week. I think you’ll find doing a slightly longer long run before your race will help it feel less terrible. I’m assuming you’ll try to go fast, so those last few miles will probably feel somewhat terrible anyway… but hopefully less so.
@Sesb – I doubt I’ll be aiming to be fast so perhaps the last miles won’t be terrible. Or maybe they will be – this course might be hillier. I should probably look into that. But I’ll just be happy to finish given the state I was in a few months ago, so being able to run 12 miles in a training run is a good feeling too.
Yay for coming back from an injury! Good luck at your race! 🙂
I used to do a lot of running and biking, and training in bad weather always made me feel like a serious athlete.