Practice in the Rain

So I was obviously not thinking straight this morning because I decided to pack my brand new running shoes for practice after work (since I think I pretty much outran the old ones after the 1/2). I threw them in my bag AND I biked to work. As I got to work, of course it started raining ALL day. Great... my bike is outside getting wet and I am wearing new shoes for practice tonight AND I'm biking 43 blocks uptown IN the rain. Fantastic. Oh well.

At 6pm I head up to 90th St. on my bike. It's not pleasant and I'm being extra careful with the rush hour traffic. I make it to practice early and see my finishing partner in the 1/2, coach Deana. The others start trickling in and before I knew it, it was 6:45 and we were off jogging on our warmup.

We did an extensive stretch exercise and worked on our running forms til about 8:15. From there, coach Alem took over and we headed up to the reservoir track for two loops around which were divided into warm up/race pace runs then jogs throughout. It was hard! I think I started off way too fast with my pace group and so I lost some of my energy later on and ended up falling a little behind. Oh well.

BUT, this was my first time running around the reservoir! I know, with all this running you'd think I'd have made it up there by now. It was great though. Slightly eary when I found myself running all alone in the dark. I just kept telling myself, I have a loud scream and there are enough team members behind me and ahead of me, I will be ok!!!

The view was amazing though! Although I wish I could have enjoyed it more but I was looking down most of the time trying to avoid the puddles (not too successfully). The shoes have had quite an initiation. My feet were burning by then end and I blamed it on them of course! But I'm trying to toughen myself up and push myself. These practices are difficult but I know it's all going to pay off...I hope!

The end was a light cool down jog down to the bridge and back. It was pretty dark at that point and I was alone, so when I got to the bridge, Bob was there waiting for people and he ran back with me and another girl. Thanks Bob! :)



We ended with some stretches and that concluded Tuesday night's practice. I feel pretty good now...after a nice hot shower and under my big blanket all DRY!