The Running [Wo]Man

Young adult-aimed or not, I’ll admit: I’ve got Katniss fever.  I listened to the first Hunger Games book on tape while training for the NYC Marathon, finished up the next two almost overnight, and then mourned the end of the series.   So this weekend my boyfriend suggested we watch THE RUNNING MAN, because the
Hunger Games' plot had a lot of similarities to this Schwarzenegger cheese-fest.  No kidding was he right!  So if you can’t wait for the Hunger Games to hit the theaters next month, I recommend that you check out this Aaaahnold classic to have fun spotting the similarities.

Okay, that was a total fake-out and not really running related at all.  Are you feeling cheated?  I’m sorry.  

Onto the real running-related “content”:  Turns out that just having a running-related blog doesn’t automatically motivate you to run….remember how I said “What better way to seal off my first blog entry than getting up and going on a run” in my first blog post?  Well…I lied to you, my imaginary readers!  Jen, Cam, Susan, Dad, and James!  I didn’t run on Friday :(  Bad, Kate!  But, Saturday I got back on track and did a quick-for-me (9:30 pace – woot woot!) 3 miles in hilly Central Park with James.  I think being slightly under dressed for the cold pushed me to go faster – that and feeling bad about making James slow down so much for me.

If you had to choose, what would you rather run in?

I vote for cold!!  Speaking of cold…I did some cross training [which I don’t do enough of] in the snow this weekend.  The snow shoeing adventure my friend Cameron and I signed up for turned out into a 6 mile hike.

Standing on the "beach" in front of the frozen over lake.  My ridiculous outfit caused Cam to break into spontaneous fits of laughter throughout the trip...more on my awesome fashion sense some other time :)

...and then the 6 mile hike turned into a 9.75 mile hike when our guide duped us into taking a tougher trail [completely unbeknownst to us] since we were "fit runners".  We felt slightly betrayed...Then the soles of the hiking boots I've had since high school literally began tearing off my shoes and before we knew it we were laughing about walking to school for 15 miles in the snow, uphill...both ways!  

Pretty icicile-coated trees that looked like diamonds gleaming in the sun!

Marshmellowy snow covered trail!

Miiiiiight be time for new shoes...

It turned out to be a great time - exceptionally beautiful and a nice "change of pace" ;-)  I like to think it counts as a "hill work-out" to offset some my "junk runs" of last week.  If nothing else, the burning in my calves, thighs and bum tells me it was doing something positive for my running abilities....or at least not leave me too sore to put in some good miles this week!  Do you have any specific training goals for this week?  More on mine Monday!