tobermory's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hills OK � I�m going to need some running advice (jogging advice? Plodding advice? Calling what I do �running� is a serious affront to the sport). Here�s the back story. Every year my husband�s whole family heads down to lovely Effingham, Illinois. Yes, this really is a real place, not some goofy name I�m making up. In fact a few years ago we even had shirts printed up that say, �WhereInTheEffinghamAreWe?� and they were such a huge success the screen printer made up extras and they sell them at the truckstop in town. Anyway, the ostensible reason we go down is because it�s the weekend of the big St. Anthony�s church picnic and while I�m not even close to being a religious person I do find the pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, bingo and beer to be a mighty fine combination � some years the pulled pork is so good it�s almost like a religious experience in itself. Steve�s aunt lives in Effingham and has a pool so we spend the days lolling about on floaties and the evenings partaking in the aforementioned culinary delights while we bleed money at the bingo tent. Every year the church hold a memorial 5K of some sort and every year I politely decline participation. Originally this was due to the fact that running more than a half mile would cause me to fall over and die � once I started a running program I declined because I was on vacation and doing the 5K would mean getting up before 11am. But this year I felt ambitious so yesterday afternoon I downloaded the entry form and filled them out for both me and Steve (I always feel that the pain should be shared) and popped them in the mail with our check for $30 (PS � St. Anthony�s? You could probably charge a little more). Fast-forward to last night. I skipped out of the shelter a little early and headed over to my sister-in-law�s house to join Steve and various family members for some pizza while we watched the All Star game (bo-ring, but I do like pizza and the company was good). I brought extra entry forms for Steve�s sister and his nephew because they usually run the race every year and I wasn�t sure if they had forms yet. My nephew (nephew-in-law?), who runs track and cross country for his college and runs a 5K in about 12 minutes, told me the course was great. �It has all these hills!� My stricken expression caused everyone to laugh. WTF? Hills? The tiny bump going up from the underpass on my jogging route causes me to gasp for air. I don�t even know how I�m going to train for this � there are no hills in Chicago. Gah. So after all that build up, here�s the question. If I spend some time running n a treadmill (I have ~3 weeks until race day) at an incline will that approximate hill training? I�m so screwed. Dinner last night: Pizza (three triangle slices of thing crust sausage) and a 1�X1� brownie (not my kind of brownie � too ooey-gooey) and a scoop of ice cream. 10:53 a.m. - 2008-07-16 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||