courage

The team workout today was a cold, rainy, blustery experience. Yet all the team members showed great courage in the face of some unpleasant weather conditions.

The team did 10 miles in Bountiful today, on Bountiful Blvd. It's a beautiful route high up on the bench (elevation about 5100 according to my Garmin), with views of the city. We saw a herd of deer in one of the golf courses, foraging for what little grass they can get this time of year.

It was very windy at the start, and in the upper 30s, fairly warm for this time of year. However, pretty soon it started to rain, and it actually was coming down in a steady and heavy drizzle for a good portion of the first 4 miles, before it eased up. AND it was windy for quite some time, with some nasty gusts. I got wet. My feet were wet, my gloves were wet, and my shirt got wet. I did have a rain jacket but got a little hot with it on; later I got cold because I was wet, and I threw on my fleece and my rain jacket. I was still cold. It was fairly nasty out there, but we had a good time anyway. No one complained much - I was impressed by how everyone just took the weather in stride.

You are probably wondering how my IT band was. The answer is that it was FINE - no problems whatsoever. I stopped after 2 miles to stretch and it felt terrific. I was wearing my shoe inserts and IT band strap, and have been continuing to take my diclofenac and do my PT exercises, with great results. I did about 12 miles today, more or less. I stopped my watch at one of the later water stops and forgot to start it again for a while; I think it was about a mile. My Garmin said I did 11.17, so I figure it was 12 total, more or less. The total time for the 11.17 was 2:17:40, or 12:19/mile. About 8 miles of that (or maybe a little more?) was more like 11 min/mile, and the rest was slower, about 13-15 min/mile, with the walkers. For a hilly route, and for not being in great shape these days due to my injury, I'm very pleased.

I am thinking about possibly adding in some speed work in the coming week, depending on how I recover from today's workout. My half marathon is only 2 months away, and I want to be fast!