The Early Bird

...needs more sleep!

So I thought as I began my long run this morning. We were scheduled to run at 8 a.m., and do a hill workout, but I was afraid I wouldn't put in enough miles, so planned to run 10 miles before joining the group at the hill. That meant leaving an hour earlier than everyone else, and for some reason the night before I have to get up early is usually the night I can't sleep. And then the alarm always goes off just as I fall into a deep slumber.

By the time I left, I was already 15 minutes behind my schedule. I ran along the Mississippi River road for about 5 miles. I had used that route before, so knew just where the bathroom was--unfortunately it was at the end of those 5 miles. I was afraid to hydrate on my walking breaks, for fear I wouldn't make it in time. I have to admit to eyeing the brush along the way, but with the leaves still missing, there just wasn't enough privacy. I don't know why the park board doesn't place port-a-potty's along there.

After the bathroom break, I ran to the other side of the river and headed down to the lock and dam. There's a good sized hill there and my old running club calls it the Dam Hill workout. My new club calls it the Lock Hill Monster. When I arrived, I had put in 10 miles.

This was an all-clubs run, so running groups from other LTF locations congregated at my club and everyone left from there. As an added incentive, athletes from Team USA Minnesota were going to run with us. This is the Olympic training team and I was looking forward to seeing some of the women athletes. But by the time I arrived at the hill, they were already gone. They were at the club before the run and were introduced there. I was disappointed to have missed them, but it was important to me to put in the miles.

The Lock Hill Monster consists of hill repeats and then assorted calisthenics. When I arrived, they had already done 3 hill repeats, but we did 3 more before I left. The first 2 were killer, but the last one seemed easy. Marcia, from my old running group, was there. She works with a woman who belongs to LTF in another location, and invited Marcia to run with us. It was so great to see her and to run with her again. The three of us went out for breakfast afterwards. Although I had the CrapCam with me, I totally forgot to take her picture. :-/