Juneathon Interrupted.

Juneathon Day 10 had an interruption in the form of an epic road trip which culminated in us eating dinner in the shadow of the Uffington White Horse--there will be at least one post on our adventures later! It wasn't a total wash because while my partner took a power nap in the afternoon the mutts and I took a 1 mile stroll on a footpath at Sturminster Newton.

712 miles in the car has taken a toll on my back though, nice little back spasms and a burger (road trip food) taking its revenge on me during tonight's run.  Since I had to make 2 emergency pit-stops on the run up to the club I opted for the track session because at least I would always be close to a loo.  Made it through 2 of the mile repeats before my GI system acted up again and had to quit halfway through the 3rd. Yes, verging on TMI territory here!

Day 10: 1.23 mile walk
Day 11: 6.75 miles run

Junk Miles

Junk miles is an odd term, everyone seems to have their own interpretation of it but I always have thought of them as miles that aren't serving a specific purpose in your training.  Of course with that it means most of mine are junk miles but I'm ok with that.  Today was a good example of it, when it started snowing with great big giant fluffy snowflakes I was just itching to get out and go for a run in it despite having a track session* planned for tonight.  Sod's law though, by the time I got changed and ready to go the snow stopped falling! Did that stop me? Silly question! I did decide to stop and take a few pics since I wasn't supposed to be running.

Yes, the fields are that green and the sky was that blue

Hello swans, sorry no bread for you

Making tracks

*Just as well I went for a run, while writing this I got the message the track was closed tonight due to being snow covered, health and safety and all that.  

Running the mile

Last night was our club track night but instead of doing the usual puke-inducing intervals we ran a 1 mile time trial.  It's been over two years since I've ran an officially timed mile race (2012 Go! Mile) and despite a stumble off the curb in the beginning that made everyone around me gasp I managed to do it in 6:43, no way I was gonna match that time.  With how heavy my legs have been feeling I was thinking it would end up being about a minute slower, a hot track and stiff breeze at the far corner during the warm-up did little to change that thought.

Go! Mile 2012

First lap was in 1:43, 2nd lap was 3:26, didn't hear what the third lap time was at, only heard Caroline yell at me to go full out on the last which I must have because I managed to squeak in at 6:54, 11 seconds slower than what I consider my best year running--not racing because I was flat broke that year and any race I did was a luxury so I don't have much to benchmark the progress during that time--but much faster than I expected. 

Getting started

One thing I noticed when looking over the photos that were taken by James T. last night is I am swinging my arms far better, they are relaxed yet I'm getting more momentum (not sure that's the right word). I'm crediting that increased range of motion to the Nordic Walking. 

Perhaps that's a little too relaxed ;-) 

The pictures from the first lap are hilarious, most of us were acting goofy for the camera which I think helped ease the suffering significantly.  What wasn't helping was the wind at the far corner of the track, every time I rounded that corner it was almost like hitting a wall so a cooler, calmer day should see everyone's times drop a little more.  

The look of suffering--although not as bad as the last track session I did 2 weeks prior.

This has been more of a rest/recovery week, it took 3 days for the soreness from Sunday's Nordic Walk race to go away and as mentioned earlier, my legs have been feeling heavy. No weights or core work and my only run days so far have been Tuesday and Thursday although they were both my usual 2x a day with running to and from Nordic Walk classes and club training.  Next week I hope to increase the intensity and frequency of the former especially since Catherine Hughes keeps tagging me with these insane looking races and workouts and I will ease back into the core work today.