I think they are trying to kill me

Why hello there blog!  Sorry to have neglected you over the last few weeks...months.  I keep telling myself that its a sign that I'm too busy living my life.  Or something like that.  But the blog is also an outlet to put it all out there.  If not, I tend to over analyze life.  In the middle of the night.  Not cool.

My blog tagline is "random thoughts from a slow moving endurance athlete."  So let's talk about that.  Despite the lack of blogging, I have in fact been getting my sweat on lately.  And The Pilot has been getting in on the fun.  Now before your mind goes in the gutter., I'm talking about working out together.  The Pilot has joined me for a couple walks/runs/shuffles and it's been fun to spend time together that doesn't involve multiple trips to the hardware store (the "adventures in moving" continue.).

We did a 4 mile walk a couple weeks ago, then last weekend he joined me for a 5 mile run/walk.  We got some fresh air and saw some bison on that one!  On Thanksgiving morning we headed out the front door and enjoyed 3 miles together before stuffing our faces (as much as a vegetarian can on that carnivorous holiday).  We even managed to lock ourselves out of the house in the process.  Let's just say that The Pilot was very thankful to live just 3 miles from his in-laws, who happen to have a copy of our house key.  :)

Over the weekend I was scheduled for 7 miles which was a little bit too much for The Pilot.  Plus, I wanted to try to run more and The Pilot's knees don't take to running so much.  He stayed home to study (you want your pilots to know their stuff don't ya?) while I hit the trails.  I was planning to stay close to home but after some Facebook stalking, I realized some buddies would be out getting in some miles.  And so I invited myself to join them (It will be no surprise if they STOP posting their training plans in advance).

What started as a 7 miler turned into 8.14 miles because it was just so nice out and my body seemed to be cooperating.   Here is what went down.

My friends Kim and Sam really pushed me yesterday while my so-called friends, Lisa and Mary tried to kill me.  End of story.

Not really.  You can see in the splits below that I was hanging with Kim and Sam for my first two miles.  They are crazy fast walkers and sometimes walk the same pace I usually run. I was huffing and puffing to keep up with them but held on for nearly 2 miles.  I then turned back to meet with more friends who are training for Goofy (I tried to warn them) and who were on day 2 of their long miles.  They had 18 on their schedule and I decided to try to join them for at least a mile (I have to be honest.  It was mostly for social reasons, not really because I wanted to try to run faster.).

Look what happened at mile 4.  10:38?  You betcha I was sucking wind and seeing stars.  I stayed with them for a mile when I cried uncle and dropped off.  Lucky for me though, they stopped just ahead of me when they ran into Kim and Sam and I was able to catch back up.  They took off again and by then my heart rate had calmed down from "you might need medical assistance" to "slightly jacked up" so I decided to try to run a little longer with them.  I made it about a half of a mile before I was dying again and dropped off to walk.  Then it happened again.  They ran into some other purple people on the trail and had stopped to say hello (see what I mean about wanting to run for social reasons??) so I once again caught up to them.  The heart rate cooperated enough to let me run with then for one final time before it was time for me to turn around (or else I would have gotten sucked into an 18 miler than than 8).

After I turned back around to finish up my workout, I went with a run .75 mi, walk .5 mi.  It seemed to work and it turned out that I was able to keep my average pace pretty decent considering the crazy heart rate and stops and starts.  In all, it was a great workout and I'm glad I made the trek to turn it into a social workout rather than heading out on my own.  I know for a fact that I couldn't have fun a 10:38 mile if I was by myself.  I'm not even sure that I would have wanted to....running is for crazy people. ;)