Monday Minute 10/5/20

Last week was a lot of fun! Hubs and I were able to get away to Canaan Valley for the week, where we enjoyed relaxing, spending time with relatives, and hiking. And a hot tub. We took advantage of the hot tub every single day we were there. I didn’t do a lot of running — just a 4 miler right before we left home on Monday, and another 4 miler right before we left Canaan on Friday, but I have no regrets about the low mileage, and I wasn’t completely inactive! I led two workout classes on Tuesday, and we hiked over 8 miles combined on Wednesday and Thursday.

More photos of the scenery on our hikes can be found in my blog post : Canaan Valley

We returned home on Friday evening, and on Saturday morning I got to run an actual in-person race! It was a 10k in Norton, VA. The first two miles are fairly flat, and then the route climbs about 2000 ft up a mountain to the High Knob observation tower.

When I ran this race two years ago, I went out strong, started climbing the mountain, and then died completely. I could barely get one foot in front of the other on the steep sections, and I was getting passed by people walking. This year I was much smarter about it. I kept the first two miles at a very comfortable pace (I was convinced it was 8-8:30 pace while I was doing it…turns out it was 7:14 & 7:26 😂🤷🏻‍♀️). When I started up the mountain, I kept the effort light until I was sure I was comfortable and could speed up without dying, and then I started pushing a little harder. I had started the race well back in the pack, so I was able to spend the first 3 miles passing people. After 3 miles, I had 3 guys not too far behind me (one of them my friend Cam, who I could hear whooping at me every now and then), and no one in site ahead of me. I eventually caught site of someone in front of me, and while I got closer every time he walked, I never actually caught him. There are 3 sections in the last 2 miles where it levels out, goes slightly downhill, or has just a slight uphill. I succeeded in conserving enough energy in the tougher parts that I was really able to speed up when it got more level. I had told myself I would walk if I reached a point where I felt that walking would be faster than running, but though I considered walking several times, I never felt that it would be faster, so I never walked. I crossed the finish line feeling like I had run a solid race, but with no idea what my place was. As I walked off the line, the race organizer handed me a prize and congratulated me for being 1st female! I later learned that I was the 4th finisher overall. My finish time was 58:40, which was about 10 minutes faster than my finish time 2 years ago! Pretty good especially considering I haven’t done any hill training in over 2 months, and wasn’t even allowed to run hills while in physical therapy!

We picked up the kids while we were in Norton for the race, and are now enjoying time with them. Ava loves my bread pudding and has been asking me to make some for awhile, so I thawed out some of my bags of bread ends and had her make the bread pudding herself! (With a little bit of help from me.)

I finished up my week of exercise with some yoga on Sunday, and then we ate a delicious surf & turf dinner. That wraps up last week, and I’ve got a busy week ahead of me this week!