"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Somedays you got it, some days you don't

Last Tuesday I ran 5 miles at a 9:40 min/mile pace

I will let that sink in....

Need another minute? Yeah, that is BLAZING fast for me.

Ok, now close your yap. You will catch flies.

Yes, RBR, the uncontested Queen of 10+ min/mile (or more if there is an incline of ANY sort) ran sub 10's for 5 miles. I was pretty damn stoked. Sadly it was in the middle of my hellish last week and I did not get a chance to brag about, err.... I mean, report it here.

Granted it was a flat course, but still, that is fast for me.


Elevation for the Tuesday 5 miler 383 ft climb

Today, I ran 5 miles at a blistering 10:59 pace (actually, the total time was 54:59 so when I entered in my Buckeyeoutdoors.com log it showed a pace of 10:60, WTF? so I rounded down. My blog, my rules.) Not exactly the same course, but still flat.

Elevation for Today's 5 miler 239 ft of climb

Again, WTF?

Yesterday, I did run 6 miles with 1463 ft of climb, and I biked 18 miles at a 15 mph average (fast for me and fast for the bike trail with its ever present geese, oblivious assholes, and such) So that may have been a factor, but it is always disheartening to struggle on a weekday run at a clearly poor pace.


Elevation profile for 6 miler

Randomness

Some artsy-fartsy pictures from my 6 mile midweek trail run (God, I LOVE summer vacation. Regretting choosing that high paying corporate job now, aren't you suckers?! Sure, I am to blame for all that ails America today, but I was also wearing pajama bottoms at 1:30 in the afternoon today *raspberry*)

Special Note to all you uber-judgey photography types (Your judgeyness is palpable! Stop it!): I carry a hot pink point and shoot camera. This is a good as my photos get if you want to see actual talent go look at my hubby's photographs (Shut up, SQ)

Upskirt shot of a Madrone Tree. My most favoritest tree!


See? Told you it was my most favoritest! Once the outer bark peels you get this beautiful, silky smooth, orange-red bark.


A perfect dandelion that has gone to seed. I have no idea the species of dandelion-ish plant it came from. Sorry. Bad biologist, RBR! Bad!


Lilac Godetia (Clarkia bottae)


Sierra Monkey Flower (Diplacus aurantiacus)


Ok, this one is from the Big Basin 25k from Hell, but I like it. (Iris macrosiphon)


Also from the Big Basin 25k from Hell. I was laying on my back in the leaf litter, contemplating staying there until a ranger found me, so I decided to snap a photo for my epitaph.


I decided to run the Bear Creek 1/2 Marathon this weekend. 13.1 miles with about 3030 ft of climb. At least I am getting some hill training in now.

14 comments:

Drs. Cynthia and David said...

Hey, as I understand it, when you're actively training and pushing your limits, you might see some rough days (I certainly do). Glad to hear your training is going well. We'll expect that much more from you now - Ha!

Nice pics. I love Madrones too. Good luck with the race.

Cynthia

Maryland Girl aka Michelle said...

Woo hoo! Let's here it for the sub 10 minute mile. I hope I can get there one day. I had to run/walk the 10k of my tri last week. fun stuff. ugh .

Enjoy the half this weekend.

Ginny M said...

Haha... as I sit on my screen porch enjoying my second cup of coffee and catching up on my blog reading (yes, in my pajamas!), I had to laugh out loud. You crack me up, as usual... whatever "they" may say about us teachers, SUMMERS rule!!! Great job on your sub 10 5 miler :)

Christi said...

Congrats on a great 5 mile run! That is a great pace. At least I can say that because we could run together at that pace. I am a slow runner also!

Shelly said...

Slow is Beautiful! Enjoy the experience.

Jo Lynn said...

Oh good! Enjoy the Bear Creek run. I did that in January when it was muddy as hell. It's a pretty exposed run and it's going to be hot so beware of that. Have FUN. ;)

Katie A. said...

Nice job on the five miler :)
I'll be out there tomorrow, too! If you like, find me! I'll probably have on a white nike hat and some black/pink nike track shorts. This run is fun to have someone to run with :)

RBR said...

@ Katie A.: Hoo! That is HILARIOUS! If you can run with Aron, you would die of boredom (or possibly old age) before you and I reached the finish line! I am like Aron's pace X 2!

I will look for you, though! Always fun to meet new people!

SteveQ said...

No work and family stresses seem to be just the ticket for you! Nice job on ALL the recent runs (and best of luck with the half). See? I can play nice.

I do wonder, however, why hubby only uses the fisheye lens when taking your picture (at least it's not wide-angle).

RBR said...

@SteveQ: Because he is EVIL like someone else I know! That and he must have a thing for garden gnomes since I look like one in almost every picture he takes of me.

Generation X (Slomohusky) said...

Vancouver Island, just outside Victoria - Madrona heaven. Love them as well. I like the Iris shot and leaf litter one.

Keep kickin! I will take a sub 10 five miler right now. Actually, I will take Sub sandwich right now. :)

SteveQ said...

Garden gnomes are hot! That's why I grew the beard.

It's been ridiculously humid and stormy here (baby frogs invading houses!). Today I had to slow my 15 miler down to 9 min./mile

*SMIRK*

So much for playing nice, I guess.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Upskirt shot of a Madrone Tree. My most favoritest tree!

Mine too, now! Because I could TOTALLY see that tree's vagina in that upskirt shot.

Wear panties next time, tree! Who do you think you are? Britney?

I could see the vagina on the tree in that last photo too but ... meh. After a while, you seen one tree's vagina, you've seen 'em all.

Next time, try to get a shot of two trees doing it! Because as a photographer? You're repeating yourself already with the vaginas there, Georgia O'Keefe.

Lindsay said...

those are way better pics than i ever took with a point 'n shoot. not to mention i have a nack for breaking mine...

nicely done on the 5-miler! i'm just telling myself that my garmin is malfunctioning and that's why my pace is slow. i had something:60 mile time too. what is up with that gamin? see, totally malfunctioning...