Team Training Runs Begin!

Team BMC training runs started December 9th at 8:00am. That means I'm getting up on a Saturday (yes, Saturday!) morning at 6:00am so I can get breakfast, wake up, bundle up and jump on the "T" to make it to the gym by 7:45am. Do I sound bitter? Because in some sick way, I'm actually finding this fun so far.

At the first team run on December 9th, I decided I was going to do 10 miles. I was very nervous though because I didn't know anyone and was afraid I'd get stuck running alone. Luckily I found a girl my pace and we ran together the entire way, actually finishing faster than we had planned in 1 hour 30 minutes. It was a cold morning, but turned out to be a great run.

At the second team run on December 16th, Sarah and I pushed up to 12 miles. All I can say is that 12 miles is a lot farther than 10 miles. All week I really just thought it was only two more miles, but that two extra miles seemed to last forever. I ran from the gym out to the entrance to the BC dorms and back to the gym. I thought that the distance between mile five and mile six would never end, but eventually we got to the entrance and headed back. On the way back my body became sensitive to every incline and decline, even something that didn't necessarily look like a hill sure felt like one. Then around mile 9 all I could think about was having to go back up Beacon Hill, but Sarah reminded me that we couldn't start thinking about that yet. Finally we reached the hill, both went silent, and pushed ourselves up and over it. We finished in about 1 hour 56 minutes. After we got back to the gym, I couldn't believe I had just run 12 miles. It was such a great feeling. I can't even imagine what finishing 26.2 miles will feel like!

The only problems I've run into so far are my knees. They have been getting a little tight during the run after a few downhills. If I stay up and moving around though, they seem to loosen up after a bit. They don't hurt during my training runs during the week, which I usually do on a treadmill, so I'm missing out on the downhill work. If they hurt again I'm going to try some ice on them and maybe an anti inflammatory.

Next week Team BMC doesn't have a training run scheduled, but we're expected to run on our own so I'll be rounding up my little sister, Heather, for a 10 mile trip. I'm not sure if I'll be back in time for our training run on December 30th, but time will tell.