Runner Leana

...sometimes with a little swimming and biking thrown in...

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9 Miles: the monkey on my back

December 6, 2011 By: Runner Leana

Holy smokes you guys, 9 miles has been a difficult long run to make happen.

I was first scheduled to run 9 miles the weekend of November 19th.  I was swamped at work and it just didn’t happen.  No long run.

On November 27th it was time to try again.  I met up with Pam with the full intention to go the distance.  We ran a gorgeous route around Elbow River past some huge and beautiful homes.  It was windy out but I was enjoying myself and I figured when we turned around we’d have a tail wind.  We turned around at 4.5 miles and we were *smack* running into the wind.  How does this happen??  It was getting worse and worse and it was completely sapping our energy.  We made the decision to short cut the run.  As we plodded the last couple of miles it felt like we were standing still and we were getting pelted with dust and leaves in our face.  It wasn’t until we finished running that I realized just how bad the wind was out there.  There were downed trees, light posts…the gusts were up to 149 km/hour and they had to close downtown due to falling glass.

So the new plan was 9 miles this weekend.  I was on a roll at work on Saturday so I pushed the run to Sunday.  Cue the crazy snowfall that started on Sunday night.

So anyhoo….excuses aside I needed to get this 9 mile run done!!  I took an extended lunch break today to finally knock it out.  Luckily I had some company for part of it too.  Pam joined for about half an hour and Kelly kept me company for an hour.  I picked up the pace once I was on my own and I felt pretty good the entire way.  The ever present wind was starting to beat me down a little near the end but I made it.  The pathways were nice and clear from snow.  The slushiest part of the run was when I was on the city sidewalks making my way back to the office.

Finally!!  9 miles done!!!

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Comments

  1. 1

    Deb says

    December 6, 2011 at 6:12 am

    You do realize you’re in Canada, and we talk in kilometers, right?  

    Just kidding! I think most of us in the blogosphere think in both km and miles anyways.

    I ran that super windy day and also cut my run short, only finding out later how truly brutal the wind was.  Nice job on getting it done!

  2. 2

    Keith Cartmell says

    December 6, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    At least you tried to run in the wind. I settled for a nice indoor spin. I’m feeling very lazy about the run the last few weeks, and I should find out why on Thursday.

  3. 3

    Kristen M says

    December 6, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Nice work!! 9 miles in the middle of the work day is awesome- especially when you haven’t run that far in a long time!

  4. 4

    Leana says

    December 6, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    I know!  Kelly gives me a hard time about using miles all the time.  I went to an American school growing up though and we always ran the mile.  I just can’t think of my pace in kilometres so I’ve never switched.

    Have fun at cycling tonight!  I’m off to the Flames game so I have to miss out.

  5. 5

    Leana says

    December 6, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    Thursday?  Good luck!!!

  6. 6

    Leana says

    December 6, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    Thanks Kristen!!  We did get in 7.5 miles on the super windy day so it wasn’t a total wash distance wise.  I was just really feeling the need to finally get those 9 miles in!  I felt pretty great at work after the run too, but when 5:00 hit my brain pretty well shut off.

  7. 7

    Lindsay says

    December 7, 2011 at 1:58 am

    they showed this on the local news last night… CRAZY. i would not want to be on that plane!! lol. i can’t imagine running in anything above a 20mph wind. (i think that’s what i dealt with in wisconson earlier this year, about 20mph). anyway, way get to the miles done – hopefully they’ll come back easier than they did the first time around 🙂

  8. 8

    Heather says

    December 11, 2011 at 12:56 am

    I’ve sat in the cockpit for a landing just like that, and although it looks super scary, they actually come in sideways like that on purpose because they know the wind will blow the nose of the plane over after the tail makes contact with the ground.  Landing at an angle will make the ultimate result straight.  It’s still scary as hell and I definitely was clutching my seat the entire time!!!  I’m surprised anyone landed at all that day!

  9. 9

    Jane says

    December 13, 2011 at 12:16 am

    Yeah!  Congrats!

  10. 10

    Alisa Dunlap says

    December 14, 2011 at 3:15 am

    Great job chica!  I’m up to 4 miles right now.  I can’t wait to get back to double digits.  Please post some more of your awesome recipes =).

who is runner leana?

6 x Ironman Finisher, 11 x 70.3 Finisher, geeky engineer and recent MBA grad.

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