Women's Wednesday

Joy here...I admitted in my last post that I've not been training full on like the athlete I thought I'd be when this summer finally decided to roll around (something that I'm still not convinced is going to happen), but I haven't been sitting back on my laurels entirely.

The home of winter's Women's Wednesdays!

Back in November I started running with Coach Woods and his stable of elite athletes, and I've continued with them.  Coach Woods puts together a 4-week running schedule for me, and then I meet up on Wednesdays and Saturdays with the rest of the athletes he trains.  Well, during the months of March, April, and May, my commitment to my programme was questionable and my attendance on Wednesdays and Saturdays was dependent on whether or not I was in the city (something that seemed to be less often than I would have liked).  All that said, when I was in town, I was there bright and early with the rest of the crew.

Now on Wednesdays, the "rest of the crew" refers to a group of girls.  Somehow that early pre-work start time for the guys on Wednesdays means that they were a no show, en masse.  We didn't mind.  We coined the phrase "Women's Wednesday" and made all sorts of jokes about getting "Woodsy's Women" T-shirts made.  We laughed as we ran around and around the indoor track at Carleton University and did our workouts.  We girl bonded and generally had fun, and I thank them for keeping me sane (mostly) through what has proven to be a never-ending winter that has really pulled me down.

The pathway at the bottom of the hill where I started my Tempo
run (but today the sky was too rainy for pictures...this one is from
another Women's Wednesday workout!)

The snow has melted, and now our practices are back outside.  Funnily enough, Women's Wednesdays are now not so gendered.  That is to say that the guys have started showing up.  So each Wednesday morning, like this morning, we met at one of the local parks (with a running track and a big hill) and went through our warm up run (around 15 mins) followed by our running drills and then our individual workouts.

Today my workout was to run up to the top of the hill, then down again, then straight into 10 minutes at Tempo Pace (which for me right now is a measly 5min/km), and then straight back up that hill one last time.  As I was finishing off some of my Tempo, at about minute 7, one of the other girls was on her run back, and so we joined up and she ran with me.  "Are you doing tempo?" She asked, looking cool as a cucumber after her hard workout.  "Yes," I huffed, "but my tempo isn't all that fast at the moment," I replied, feeling like I needed to justify myself.  "Well," she said, "you've got to start somewhere!"  And with that bit of common sense, I realized that Women's Wednesdays are a place where you can meet great friends who are encouraging and supportive, and with her words ringing encouragingly in my ears, I just pumped my legs as hard as I could up that hill, and even though they were burning as I made it to the top, I made it to the top!

I slowly walked back down the hill to meet up with The Man and another one of the guys who has taken over Women's Wednesdays (he just finished the Ottawa 1/2 Marathon in a personal best time of 1:25!).  They congratulated me on my completed workout, and we made our way to the cars and the start of our workdays.  We waved to our other friends and felt like all is right in the world.

So in addition to my warm up, hills, and drills, I did a little 2km run this morning.  And that's not the longest nor the fastest run I've ever done in my life, but YOU'VE GOT TO START SOMEWHERE!

Over and out,
Joy