A Tempestuous Three

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 28:01
Location: Granite Hills

Today was a windy one! Well, it's actually been pretty regularly windy up here the last couple of weeks, but today it kicked it up a bit. My only other run this week was on Wednesday, a much-needed 3 mile loop around my neighborhood. That run took a lot out of me, leaving me sore and aching. Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension, so we drove down to Ontario in the evening to go to Mass, and thus I didn't run. I planned on getting at least a mile in Friday night, but that didn't happen due to exhaustion after a busy week. So it all came down to today. Even though I still felt a little sore from Wednesday, I felt like I needed another longer run, so I decided to do another 3. And I would simply have to endure the ferocious wind.

I headed out around 6pm up to Granite Hills High School. I last ran up there on April 30th when I discovered a trail just east of the school that added another mile to the loop I used to do. So today I decided my route would be one loop around the high school followed by the trail loop and ending with another loop around the school... a perfect 3 mile route. I knew it was going to be a tough run because of the wind, so I started off with an easy pace. Plus, I'm just getting myself used to running longer distances again, so I'm easing myself into it. But I probably wouldn't have been able to run fast anyway. The first leg of the run heads directly west, right into the oncoming wind! The second leg heads south, but the entire desert opens up to the right (west) and so I was getting battered by the wind for a whole 1/4 mile. It was very tough going, and thus my pace was quite slow. Things got better for the next 1/2 mile or so. I was now running with the wind and it allowed me to reserve my energy as I let the wind push me gently onwards. Things were going pretty well; my first mile was about a 9 flat, so my pace was actually a little better than Wednesday. During the second mile I began to feel some fatigue set in, but it wasn't anything too bad. Then I rounded the corner to start my third mile and I was faced with the wall of wind again. I felt like my pace really slowed down at this point and it took a lot out of me to maintain my efforts against such a force. By the time I reached the 2.5 mile mark I was nearly spent. But luckily that was the moment I turned east and ran with the wind again. For the last 1/2 mile I picked up my pace and got a good kick in at the end. My time was 28:01, a mere 8 seconds better than Wednesday, which I think is actually good considering I was fighting the wind and I felt like my pace suffered a lot because of it.

All in all today's run was a good one. I felt good afterwards and I'm excited to be much farther along in my training at this early point in the "running season." Last year at this time I hadn't even advanced to 2 miles yet!