April 09, 2013

Hills


Yesterday, I did a hill workout for the second time ever. I've always hated hills, but talking about them in my RRCA class made me want to add them to my training. Because of my history with knee injury, I am doing these on the treadmill so that I don't have to do the downhill part (which is what usually causes injury).

In my mind, the workout I had planned seemed simple enough:

1 mile warm-up at 6.7 mph
1/2 mile at  7.5 mph with 5% incline
1/4 mile walk at 3 mph with 2% incline
(repeat intervals for a total of 4 times)
1 mile cool down at 6.7 mph

It was MUCH tougher than I anticipated! The incline and faster speed was really hard. I thought it was interesting to see my heart rate...
I think the 5% incline at 7.5 mph was much harder than 1% incline at 9.3 mph (the speed I was doing my quarter-mile repeats at). At first, I was thinking I should probably do 6-8 repeats--ha! I felt exhausted after four.

Yesterday morning after my run, I went to Kroger to pick up some potatoes and postage stamps--a quick in and out trip to the store. I did the self-scan checkout, and asked for stamps. After I paid, the cashier still hadn't gotten my stamps, so I had to wait for her to finish helping someone else. Finally, she gave me the stamps and I walked outside.

As soon as I walked out the door, I saw a car go FLYING past the store (at what I later learned was 100 mph). Following the car, were police cars, with lights and sirens going. I counted nine of them! I was so stunned at how fast the cars were going on that two-lane road that I just stopped and gawked  for a minute.

I was curious what was going on, and if the person ended up being caught. The road is a twisty road, and not very safe for a high-speed chase. I run on that road, and thankfully, I wasn't running yesterday morning. I drove a few miles down the road, and saw that the chase had ended with the car crashing into someone's privacy fence.


I later read an article about it in the newspaper, and learned it was a 36-year old woman, who was high on cocaine, and they had tried pulling her over for speeding on the expressway 25 miles away. She fled, going the WRONG WAY on the expressway, causing a couple of accidents. They managed to put out spikes and blow one of her tires, but she was still driving over 100 mph. When she crashed, she was trying to enter a subdivision, and thank God she crashed before driving like that through a sub with houses everywhere. She ran when the car stopped, but she was caught.

I was thinking on the way home that if I didn't have to wait on the stamps, I would have been just ahead of the whole car chase, and who knows how that could have ended?! Interesting how things work out that way.

Anyway, this morning, I had plans to get together with Jessica for coffee, so I got up bright and early at 5:30 to run on the treadmill before the boys woke up. Ever since I started going for walks in the afternoons, my sleep has become a little more regular. I am super tired at the end of the day, and usually in bed by 9:30 or 10:00, and then I usually sleep until 6:00. I used to wake up several times during the night, but lately, I've only been waking about two times per night. It's nice!

I turned on Sons of Anarchy (for those of you that are interested, I'm on season four, episode two), and hopped on the treadmill. I ran a mile warm-up, and then three miles at my "happy pace", and then walked for about a half mile until the episode was over. (Oh! When I saw the first episode of season four, I was SO happy to see that Jax cut his hair; he was hot before, but he's a million times hotter now...)

After the kids went to school, I caught up on some e-mail and then went to meet Jessica. She's running the half-marathon this Saturday, also. We're going to go to the expo on Friday and then go have dinner at La Pita! Then we're going to meet on Saturday morning to ride together to the race. I'm bummed that the half-marathon start time is 8:45--that's late to start a half-marathon! There is a marathon, a half, a 10K, and a 5K, and the half-marathon is the last one to start. Weird, right?

I had another day of good eating, so I'm hoping the damage on the scale tomorrow isn't TOO bad!

10 comments:

  1. I love reading about your Sons of Anarchy experience. Season 4 is much better than season 3, so get ready! :) Such a great show

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  2. A hill workout with no downhills... brutal! Although you are right, the downhills are what causes my one knee to feel weird.

    Crazy about that car chase. That is what I always imagine happening behind me when I am running on the shoulder. :\

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  3. I got caught behind someone really slow on the interstate one day and when I finally got around them, I watched a truck going on an overpass lose its load, spilling it onto the lanes below. If it hadn't been for the slow-poke, I'm sure I would have been in the direct path. So now I tend to silently thank people for holding me up, because who knows what I might have avoided. =)

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  4. Wow that is scary. It is funny when things happen that way but I am glad you got delayed with stamps haha. I have a question. I am dealing with a lot of anxiety right now that makes me binge eat a lot. I used to take this medicine that really helped me but it got taken off the market. I don't know what to do :( everytime I am at home I am eating. I know you have made a lot of post about binge eating but anxiety beats me almost evrrytime. :(

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  5. I'm a police dispatcher and I LOVE dispatching vehicle pursuits. Especially when the people bail out and it becomes a foot pursuit. It gets the heart pumping :)

    Thankfully you got held up by those stamps. Hopefully no one was hurt by that lady. Some people....

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  6. That car chase is really scary and sad too. Great workout, hills kill me.

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  7. WOW ! Super scary ..... so glad it worked out for you. Hope everyone else in her path was as lucky.

    I could of never lived through those hills and that speed! I've added some small hills (no greater than 5%) lately too .... to help build some leg strength.

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  8. I was so happy when Jax cut his hair too, ha! So much better ;)

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  9. Funny- I just bought the NB 630v2 at Kohl's today! It's what's advertised on your blog!

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  10. Lucky for you you had to wait! Scary! Judging from the mini van she was probably a mom :(

    I'm doing a run Sunday that has a bunch of different runs. I'm doing a 10k and it starts a full hour after the 5k. Strange they did it that way but at least I'll finally get some pictures of my husband taking off and coming in :)

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