This scribble-scrabble is what four hill repeats looks like to my Garmin.
I realize these updates might be a little confusing, as I'm usually talking about the previous week. For example, this week I had to run with Jeff on Monday because Julia had the unmitigated gall to go on vacation with her family - I know, the nerve of her!!! And yesterday we started our hill repeat workouts with the running club. We met at 5:30 am and a whole bunch of bleary-eyed runners chugged up our hill...most of us did a total of four times (we'll increase that number each week). It was hard, but I managed to run up the entire way each time, which is an improvement from last year when I started hill workouts. Maybe all those land workouts have been helping!
But here's the scoop on last week. I'm proud to report that Julia and I completed our fourth week of land workouts! We pushed ourselves to walk 4 miles on Monday and Wednesday, plus our usual planks, squats, lunges, prison curls and whatever else we could think of. I also walked 2.6 miles with Erica on Thursday, bringing my walking mileage for the week to nearly 11 miles. As far as running, Jeff, Julia and I ran 2.6 miles on Tuesday (haha, can you tell that is the loop in my neighborhood), and then Julia and I ran 3 miles on Friday (I had to get my long run in the day before running club, because I was going to be busy on Saturday morning with our egg hunt). So in five day's time, I covered over 16 miles between walking and running...and yes, my legs DO feel stronger!
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Onto the egg hunt. It went great, although the numerical logistics of the amount of eggs I had, plus the amount of runners, and prizes, and drop locations nearly did me in - many of you know I am NOT a math person, and you can add logical things in with that as well. It just didn't click with me, no matter how many times I tried to figure it out. And of course the mom in me wanted to be sure everyone would be able to collect eggs, regardless of how fast or slow they ran. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that Jeff was trying to diagram out my formula of the egg per person per prize per location ratio. For the record, I still hate math. But it all worked out, and everyone who wanted to participate got plenty of eggs and prizes.
Just starting out - love the enthusiasm!
How it worked was that we dropped a bunch of numbered eggs along the route - it was an out-and-back, and except for the first drop, runners could wait until they reached the turnaround to start collecting their eggs. We gave them special "egg collecting bags" (aka dog poop bags) and sent them along to run, with instructions to collect a maximum of 8 eggs. Meanwhile, I stayed at the park and set out all the prizes. The number on the eggs corresponded to a certain prize; there were some bigger prizes (or MAJOR AWARDS, as I channeled the father in A Christmas Story whenever that number would come up) like USAFit hats, BTHO 13.1 socks (donated by our running store), some drawstring backpacks, and some runner's samples gift packs that Julia and I put together. Those winners could choose their prize. Our first runner came in, and she won a MAJOR AWARD! She chose socks, and the fun was just beginning:
I cracked up that both Rina and Scott matched their eggs to their shirts!
Coach Amy brought her camera along for the run and got some great shots as our runners approached the turn around - you can also see the nice wide sidewalk we get to run on:
These ladies cracked me up! I love that they were having such a good time. :)
Here's Kathleen at our turnaround - you can see the eggs, water and cone here:
Wearing my "As long as you're sweating, you're still alive" technical shirt that is not good to sweat in - go figure!
Everyone seemed genuinely happy with their goodies - we chose
runner-inspired items like mini jelly beans (representing Sports Beans),
fruit snacks (GU Chomps), Gatorade, trail mix, pretzels, peanut butter
crackers, and snack size candy bars.
Afterward, runners hung around and got to know each other better:
It was a fun event! Oh, and here's the best part of starting our runs so early:
Gotta love a view like that!
I love the egg hunt Shelley, it looks like a great morning and it makes running so much more fun. Well done coach!
ReplyDeleteLove reading about your groups runs. Jealous!
ReplyDeleteIm with darlene and have to add next year *I* wanna be runner bunny.
ReplyDeleteif I can be RB and not R :)
How fun! And what a beautiful sky....
ReplyDeleteThat club was so lucky to get you as coordinator! Not only do you know how to have fun, but you're also an experienced runner, so you know what makes the actual running more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteYou could be my triplet, considering I have a twin - I hate math and yet my boss always wants me to reconcile credit card statements at my office, even though I've told her that math definitely is NOT my major! :D
ReplyDeleteLove the MAJOR AWARDS! You did a great job Shelley!
WHAT A BLAST!!!!! All fitness should be that fun!!!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like so much fun! You need to do a christmas one for christmas in July :D
ReplyDeleteSo fun! And looks like a lot of work went into this. Great event.
ReplyDeleteChrissy
That looks like so much fun! I wish there was something like that out here!
ReplyDelete