Is It The Mountain Air?

I have been posting the race reports for my past races.  I apologize for any boredom that this may cause anyone but I wanted to get them written and posted on the off chance that people start following me (Hi Mary!).  I know my favourite part of reading blogs is the race reports so I didn't want to leave them out. 

Anyhoo, onto training.  Paul and I have been on vacation on the West Coast for almost two weeks now.  He has a brother who lives in Bellingham, Washington with his family and I have a sister that lives in Salmon Arm, B.C. with her family.  We spent a week in Washington and have been in Salmon Arm since last Friday.  I couldn't go without training in some way for two weeks!  Besides, I'm signed up to run the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon on October 17th.  I ran the half last year for the first time and would really like to beat that time. 

Where I live, in Southwestern Ontario it's flat.  Really flat.  Like doing "hill repeats" on the bike means driving over and back the 401 highway overpass.  For real.  The prospect of running while on the West Coast actually worried me quite a bit.  Actual mountains?  Could I do it?  I had one long run each week along with the other maintenance runs scheduled.  Couple this with my running alone (I usually run with Sydney) and I was nervous.  I must say though it hasn't been so bad.  My average pace is actually faster than at home and although my quads hurt like a mother the first week my legs feel fine now. 

I've done both of my long runs at a faster pace than I planned, depsite the hills.  Today I ran 8km and averaged 6:31/km.  I ran without looking at my Garmin because I wanted to just run by feel.  I attacked each uphill and concentrated on keeping my form and lifting my feet (I'm a bit of a shuffler).  On the downhills I concentrated on keeping my body upright and controlling my pace.  Mostly it was a really pleasant run that went by quickly while I enjoyed the mountain views and the horses and cows that I passed.

We get home Saturday afternoon and my next run is 17k with Andy on Sunday.  I'm anxious to see how/if this translates.  Then again, will jet lag and the time change have a negative effect?  Stay tuned...