Sunday, August 5, 2007

A good group will always watch your behind

Yesterday I met up with Instructor S's running group at the Eau Claire YMCA at 6:30 am. Wow, it is hard to meet anyone at that time of the day, but luckily everyone in the running group was feeling the effects of the early morning, so it wasn't just me. The folks training for the full had 15 mi planned, the rest had 9 mi, but we all started off together. Early on in the run I discovered a reason as to why it isn't always the best to wear your Fuel Belt down around your hips. I guess the belt was in the right position that my running skirt was catching up in the bottles and it wound up riding up to provide some extra air conditioning...ahem. Thank goodness for the shorts underneath, and thank goodness for the lovely person behind me who was able to point this wardrobe malfunction out to me. After a reposition of the belt I was good to go. There we go, chalk up one point to running in a group!

The pace of the group was significantly slower than what I've been running my long runs at - a good 2 to 2.5 min/mi slower - but the conversation helped the run to go by quickly. I hung out with the ladies running the 9 mi, so as I had planned on 10 mi, I wound up coming up a bit short. After the run we hung out at the Good Earth coffee shop, had a bite to eat, and waited for the 15 milers to finish up. All in all it was a fun morning. I enjoyed the group running, but I think I'd like to find a group that runs a bit closer pace to where I've been at lately. The interesting thing is - I'm not sure if I can attribute this to my pace or to the mileage I've been putting in lately - but it didn't feel like I ran that far yesterday. It felt almost...easy...

I had planned on yoga for my XT today, but unfortunately the yoga studio is closed since it is a long weekend here (Monday is Heritage Day for us in Alberta). Instead I found a few new items so that when I go back to yoga I'll be styling...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute shirt. Buying work out clothes always motivates me!

RunToTheFinish said...

A slower pace can definitely make a run feel a lot easier and sometimes that's just what you need to boost your mental confidence.

Can you believe only 75 days til San Fran!!

TNTcoach Ken said...

Depending on how you’ve been running your long runs, you can still work with the group. Not trying to be anti-social you can hang with them for 2/3 of the run, then get into your marathon pace and end just a few minutes ahead of the group. It’s nice to have an ‘easy’ run every now and then. Happy Heritage Day, what is that?

Laurel said...

Oooh, sweet shirt!

Hopefully there will be no wardrobe malfunctions with that one ;)

Congrats on a 9 miler. That is great that it felt so easy. Sometimes I like running with a slower group for a few weeks. It helps me mentally and physically when I start running faster again.

Great job!

Angry Runner said...

I tend to be a pretty keen behind-watcher. Anything for the team.