The hills are alive...with bugs

In an effort to be super-good at life, I hauled my booty out of bed at 5:30 am yesterday to go run hill repeats. I KNOW. I was very proud of myself, especially since I didn't have coffee first.

I went to Elver Park to do repeats on this hill, which according to the internet is the highest point in Madison:



Ugh okay. I know. It looks tiny. This is due mostly to the fact that I took this photo after I was done with repeats and also done with my cool-down run and was disgusting and wanted to go home so I could not be bothered to walk ALLLLL THE WAY back over to the bottom of the hill for a photo session; I shot it from near the parking lot with a wide-angle lens. It is also due to the fact that I live in the Midwest and we are a simple people living in a flat land. But just trust me, that hill is a beast and it's long and it sucks. Actually, if you make the picture big you can see a runner going up it, which should give you some perspective on its BEASTLINESS.

We used to run this hill in cross country, and as I was driving over to the park I tried to remember what those workouts were like. Mostly, I tried to remember how many repeats we would do. I failed. So I set out to do five. I ended up doing eight, plus a 20-minute warm-up and cool-down. It was weird, I think I have written about this before, but certain parts of Madison just smell a certain way in a certain season, and the whole time I was in this park I was 17 all over again, waiting for the evil Coach Spolar to come crack the whip and make me do more speedwork. It's kind of helpful in a way as I was awesome at life when I was 17 and it makes me work a little harder when I'm running. Hopefully that makes sense.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do this workout in the morning is that Wisconsin has been DISGUSTING this week. It's been in the mid-90s with at least 80 percent humidity since Monday, and by the time late afternoon/evening rolls around I am too busy wishing I was dead to even contemplate running. When I walked out of my apartment building before 6 am yesterday it was still a little humid, but mostly cool and dewy and lovely. The park was the same way until I started running the hill and ran into my friends the mosquitoes. They were EVERYWHERE and they LOVED ME. I felt like Lady Gaga with a swarm of paparazzi, except not at all because instead of taking my photo and not telling me my lady bits were exposed, they just wanted to cluster around my head and bite my face off.

It was good motivation to keep moving, because every time I stopped I looked like Pigpen.



Pigpen in a wifebeater with a ponytail, anyway.

I also looked like this when I was done:



And the bottom of my shoes were CAKED with mud. It was awesome.

The only downside to morning workouts is that I inevitably run out of time to do a proper stretch/ice/foam roll session. I halfheartedly stretched my hamstrings and quads before jumping in the shower to get to work on time. As a result my right IT band, from my butt to my knee, is SCREAMING today. So I'm going to push today's run to tomorrow and spend some quality time with my foam roller boyfriend tonight. HOT DATE FOR SURE. It's better anyway because it's in the 90s again today but tomorrow the high is 63 or something ridiculous like that. Thank you weather for endorsing my week's training plan, I appreciate it!

in which I am salty

My 10K is in six days. I feel both prepared for this and unprepared for this.

PREPARED: I have run more than six miles and I know that I can race that distance comfortably.

UNPREPARED: Y'all, I don't know why, but the 10K is kind of intimidating me a little bit. It shouldn't, logically, because I know I can run the distance without problems and I've raced a half marathon before, so it's not even close to the longest race I've ever run. I think I'm intimidated because I've actually trained and am in shape and ready to race it, whereas with my half marathon I had to stop training halfway through due to a potential injury. THE TOOMAH, YOU KNOW.

The thing also starts at 7:45 am and there is NO pre-race-day packet pickup, so I have to get out of bed super early and haul my ass over there to make sure I can get my packet and still have time to warm up. I'm annoyed. Who doesn't even give you the OPTION to pick your packet up ahead of time? Apparently I keep registering for the world's most ghetto and unorganized races. The Summerfest half-marathon seems less so, though they refuse to mail my packet to me even though I don't live in Milwaukee so picking it up is going to be a road trip extravaganza.


Road trip rage, booyah.
Source

Anyway, so that's that. I had a good week of running last week until Friday, when I got to spend 10.5 hours covering a Joint Finance Committee hearing at the Capitol. They were passing the budget, and because politics is nasty these days it was basically 10 hours of Democrats and Republicans bickering and being rude to each other. It was also about five hours of protesters standing up, singing and being carried out of the room by police. Those type of shenanigans are ongoing at the Capitol today, where I was covering a Supreme Court hearing:


Source

It's fascinating to be reporting on this stuff but it's also a little hard to watch sometimes. Anyway, I was stuck there Friday night (Saturday morning?) until 1 am, so obviously running didn't happen.

I left Saturday to go up north and visit my grandparents, and I went running there Sunday morning. I had mapped out a route before I left home, but I got RIDICULOUSLY lost and ended up running all over their town; I had meant to do around 7-8 miles but instead did just over 9. I was pretty pumped about the distance but exhausted by the end because it was hot and sunny and my legs were hurting and hating me. And I walked in the door and my grandma immediately said, "Okay! How about some fresh coffee!" Since my core temperature at that point was roughly the same as the core temperature of the earth, I declined and instead went into the kitchen and guzzled about 14 gallons of water. All in all it was a stellar running day. My quads still hurt.

So, my plan this week is to do one more long run (well "long," you know, at least six miles) and one speed or hill session. The speed/hill thing has eluded me thus far because my hours at work have been f-ing ridiculous, and I have sucked at getting up to go running before work. The hill I want to use for repeats is a good 10 minute drive from my house; I figure I'll be running up and down it for 45 minutes to an hour; factor in a warm-up and cool-down and I think I have to be out the door by 5:30 am to get the whole thing done and still get to work on time. And come on. That is ridiculous. (Never mind that in Virginia I consistently left my apartment at 4:50 to get to the gym before work. WHATEVER THIS IS WISCONSIN, RULES ARE DIFFERENT.)

It's also disgusting, balls-hot here. It's 95 outside right now but with the humidity, the channel 3 meteorologist informs me, it feels like 108. I disagree because it really feels like about 193,343,090. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same, which is actually really good motivation to get my workout done in the morning because I am definitely not going to be pumped to go run if I walk out of work tomorrow evening and it feels even remotely like it does now. I saw a girl running while I was driving home; she was wearing black shorts and a black tank top and I legit wanted to roll down the window and yell "WHY, SERIOUSLY, WHY?!"

The end. This entry was kind of salty. Like my sweat will be tomorrow. Appropriate!!