Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Track? and good running :)

(the 50k report is still coming, probably this weekend! I have to move tomorrow to a new building due to a mess up by the housing people so I've been busy packing and such, and of course doing school work since finals are already upon me! But I will write up a *hopefully* steller report eventually. bear with me :D)

This week I've been trying my best to really be a social runner and find some good people to run with, which, in Santa Cruz, seems to mean going to track workouts!

Monday night I joined some TNT alumni, invited by my new running friend Mimi, which was lots of fun. We did a 'grab bag' workout, meaning lots of drills were written on pieces of paper, and we drew one at a time to find out what we were doing. I finally learned track speak, and can now, with some confidence, tell you what an 800 is (or can I? Is that one lap around the track, or two? I'm going with two?!?). Anyways, we did some sprinting, which was ridiculous for me, as I've apparently forgotten how to do that. I thought I was going to fall backwards as I couldn't seem to make my upper body move along at the same speed as my feet. We did just fast running around the track, step ups on the bleachers, crunches balancing on the bleachers (I kept falling for this), and 10 minutes of hills. Plus some other fun stuff. Doubt I ran more than 3 miles total, but it was a good workout! It's so fun to be with people again, and it's really good that I'm finally doing hill repeats, since I've been meaning to do those and just hadn't gotten around to them.
After the track workout I did my usual (well, what I did after the last time I went to track) and ran around the campus track while watching the sun set over Monteray Bay. It was absolutely gorgeous up there again, and there were six deer hanging out on the grass having a late dinner. A baby deer was less than 5 feet from me when I walked past, but spooked and bounded a few more feet away. How nice! Even better, my legs just felt great up there! I was amazed at how well I was feeling just 2 days after my fast 50k :)

However, it started getting pretty dark up there, and when the frisbee guys turned in, I thought it might be time to go as well. Didn't feel all that safe with just me and the deer hanging out in the dark. Did 2 miles on the track, so ended up with about 5 for the night. What was cool was that when I went back to my car, there was a deer about 7 or 8 ft from the stairs heading up to the parking lot. I stopped there to stretch, and watch the deer. It would periodically look over at me, looking a little scared, but then would start foraging for food again. It seemed somewhat wary but accepting of my presence :) Eventually I left it to its meal and got into my car to go home. Pretty cool :D
santa cruz deer hanging out on campus

Tuesday I took off, because I was surprisingly sore from Monday! Those hills and bleacher step ups certainly hit me hard :)
Tonight I tried to meet up with the Santa Cruz Track Club and, again sort of failed, through my own fault. Traffic was unbelievably bad getting to the track, and a 14 minute drive ended up taking a good 45 minutes! By the time I got there, I was already 20 minutes late, and didn't want to barge into a practice in progress. However, I had made the drive and certainly didn't want to head home just yet. Carol, a woman I had been emailing who is a fabulous ultrarunner (just did Headlands 100!!) said she'd be doing hills on a hill above the track, so I ran/walked around looking for this hill. Finally, I found what I thought might be it, and decided to just do hill repeats myself and hope that she'd show up. I did one, running about 1/2 and walking the rest, then running down and around a field at the bottom to rest. When I got back to the hill, I saw a woman with short grey hair in front of me. "Carol?" I called. It was her. We finally met, and set of up the hill together. It was great talking to her and hearing about some of her recent ultra experiences. She's on the slower side (from what she's said) so it sounds like we might be a good fit for long run buddies! I'm excited :) We did the hill 3 more times, and she called it a day, since she was still recovering from a few weeks ago. Hopefully we'll run together soon!
After that I was still itching to get in some more running, so I headed down to west cliff to do a nice flat 6 miles or so. It was nice without headphones or my garmin, and I just sort of tranced, listening to the crashing waves. My calves were doing a weird pain thing about halfway (I think I need new road shoes- these have 500 or so miles on them) so I turned back. I thought it was 6 miles since I turned at the 10k turnaround for the SC race, but I realized I cut off about a half mile becuase of where I started, so I think I ended up with less than that. Oh well, probably about 6 1/2 miles total, and a great evening :)

Tomorrow I might try to hit the Poginip trails solo, since Andy provided me with a nice map, and can hopefully get in 8.5 or so.

Carol told me the details for a Sunday run with SCTC, so hopefully I can finally get in my first official group run up here :)

11 comments:

Unknown said...

finals already? seems like you just started school.

dang, addy. how many miles are you putting in. i tried to keep track, but it's obvious i'm no math wiz.

cool to know you're hooking up with some sc running pals.

Rick Gaston said...

Love the track workouts. Did a hard one last night. I got into them for the first time ever last year, now I can't imagine my running with them. Are you talking about Carol Cuminale. If so, yeah she's a nice lady. Is it wrong I got hungry looking at the deer? Ok I'll shudup now.

Anonymous said...

A lot of nice work lately Addy! I love running a variety of runs and surfaces. Trails are my first love admittedly, but even track runs are fun for me.

And I can run with other people 80% of the time if I have them, but also need some solo runs to balance out my thinking.

Jean said...

Great workouts, Addy. Keep it up! Cute pictures of the deer, too! I always love seeing wildlife on my runs.

In reading Rick's comment above, I am thinking the deer will steer clear of him during his next ultra... ;-)

Sarah said...

Sounds like you're finding your running network! I loved track workouts in hs but I haven't done them since. (And that was a looooong time ago.) I need to work on my speed. Good luck with your finals!

Rick Gaston said...

Okay real deer story. I was in the Headlands earlier in the summer and I was running downhill on a trail. I feel eyes looking at me so I look up and on to my right, right on the side of the trail in the bushes are three deers looking right at me. Oh deer how strange, I slow down and look to my left and there was another deer looking right at me. Apparenty I had interrupted a crossing. I said excuse me and continued on my way. Patient dears.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Great job Addy on ur hills and meeting more Ultra runners to learn and run with...

Good luck with ur move, brought me back to my freshman year at school same thing happened to me...they put me in the wrong room AFTER I unpacked and was all settled in (sigh))) but worked out fine and actually that move ended up meeting some friends that I still hang with many years later:-)

Have a good weekend

Adelyn said...

erod- I know, finals seem silly so soon, but our schooling is broken into short sections, so the summer 6 week session is now over. And it seems like lots of miles all spread out, but it definitely isn't enough!

Rick- They are sort of fun. The variety is great :)I am talking about Carol Cuminale. I met the 'other' Carol last weekend (as if there are only 2, but she lives in Berkeley and I had heard lots about her from Mike Palmer)Its funny they both did Headlands100 and finished right by each other!
And yes, it's wrong to look at those cute little dears and get hungry. What kind of person are you!?!? ;)
That story you posted is great! I can just imagine that happening in the headlands

Mike- THanks. Solo runs are definitely necessary too. You need some time to contemplate life :)

Jean- THanks!

Sarah- They are surprisingly fun, and hopefully will make me a bit more fast :)

Bob- Thanks for the positive story! I'm a little nervous about the new roommates, but hopefully I'll have an experience like yours :)

Anonymous said...

I just noticed and like the "weekly miles" tab on the side of your blog....that idea may find it's way to mine, as if I don't have enough things on the side already.....

Unknown said...

Addy,
Good luck on your finals.
Regarding track please be careful.
And remember to run in the opposite directions. From experience, this past May while doing track 3 weeks in a row I developed very tight IT issues on my left side. I talked to the coach he recommended that I should occasionally reverse the direction to balance out the body...
just my 2cents...

Ryan said...

Well rounded running trails, track, and hills nice job on mixing things up and keep a fresh outlook! Btw congratulations on completing another 50K! Keep on truckin!