Because I don't think I'll be getting a run in anytime soon.
Lake Driveway isn't the only new water feature we have in our yard.
Here's the Side-yard River, a popular destination for white water rafters from all over the country.I would love to send all this rain to another part of the country where it's actually, you know, wanted.
I'll probably just skip my run today, and do another four on the treadmill or, if I'm lucky (I'm not lucky), eight outside tomorrow, weather permitting.
Update:
The flooding here is really, really bad. York County made the national news. Harrisburg's City Island and the city up to 2nd street are going to be flooded when the river crests on Friday, and the waterfront in Wormleysburg is also going to flood, among other places.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44432466#44432466
I'm hoping the Conewago has receded since I drove by at around 5:00, some of the homes along the creek were in the creek, and more were about to be. This is usually a pretty calm part of the country...we could sure use some slow news days right about now.
I'm not a fan of the treadmill at all, to put it mildly. But with the remnant of Hurricane Lee parked over Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future, it becomes my best option for getting as many of midweek miles in this week.
I especially dislike our treadmill. It's rough on the calves and ankles and the speedometer and odometer seem to very inaccurate. (More on this in a minute). I'm probably being too harsh on a $350 treadmill from Bocov's, especially because it has been an extremely valuable part of my training during my first two years of running, when I was quickly driven indoors by the cold temperatures that I now crave.
Since it was pouring at 7:00am, when the always-reliable weather.com said there was "only" a 40% chance of rain, I decided to wait to see if I could catch a break in the weather in the afternoon, when it seemed there was another possible break at around 1pm, where the chance of precipitation dropped back down to 40% again. Again, pouring.
So, I hopped on the treadmill at my lunch break. Like I said, the speedometer and odometer seem very inaccurate. I run about a 10-minute mile pace -- 6mph. But on our treadmill, I go flying off the back if I set it at 6mph and used to run at 5.5. I hadn't used it in a year, and today I found that I was most comfortable and my stride seemed to most closely match my usual stride at 4.3mph. Though my PRs are faster, I am probably a little slower on average than I was in 2006-2008, when I used the treadmill more often, but that seemed ridiculous! In the past, when I've used a treadmill at a gym or hotel, I've been able to set it at 5.5 or 6mph and run comfortably. To be fair, those treadmills also probably cost thousands of dollars.
At any rate, today (and any other days this week I'm forced to use the Hamster Wheel) I assumed a 10-minute mile and ran for 40 minutes, considering my four-mile obligation to Hal Higdon to be fulfilled, even though I really moved less than two feet for the whole 40 minutes.
The rest of the week's schedule is 8 tomorrow, 4 on Thursday, and 15 on Saturday. There appears to be no chance of the rain stopping anytime soon, but there is also no chance of me staying on our treadmill for 1:20. I'll keep an eye on the forecasts, and hope that I can switch the two and get the 8 in on Thursday.
Today was another hill workout along my new course. It was supposed to be another 6.3-ish miles to simulate Saturday's 10K, but I was getting rained on for most of the run. Of course, I figured I could only get so wet, so I decided to continue, but then just as I was finishing the second loop, I heard thunder and decided to head back to my car. I ended up with a 4.3-mile hill workout and some extra time to play video games before work.
I had a little more fun with elevation charts yesterday, too. This claims to be the map and elevation chart for the 2009 Dreaded Druid Hills 10K. So, if the course remains the same, here's our elevation profile:
Here, again, is the elevation profile from my route on Monday: If I hadn't made it a little too small (or if you clicked on it to see a full-size version), you'd be able to see that the steepest hill, which I run up 3 times going back toward Manchester, is a climb from 357 feet to 474, feet over a little under 0.4 miles. Going up the other side of the "half pipe" into Mt. Wolf is 369 feet to 432 feet, over just a bit over half a mile.
At Druid Hills, the two toughest climbs appear to be a long uphill from 227 feet to 291 feet over 1.5 miles and 231 feet to 279 feet over 0.7 miles.
In looking at this, I'm feeling a little more prepared for this race. I think the hills on Saturday will seem longer, but I don't think it will feel like I'm climbing mountains compared to what I'm used to. I probably won't PR, but I don't think I'll embarrass myself either.
Either way, I'll have a race report to write, so you won't have to sit through more cat stories.
