Run Log: August 2011

What a great running month ~ I began my cross country coaching career (that's rather alliterative) ~ and am having fun with a great group of middle school runners.  My patience is not so long for kids who stroll along, walking the course, laughing and joking with their friends...but it's not so productive to yell at kids and MAKE them run.  It's quite a mental process to gently motivate and encourage and find success with kids who really don't enjoy running...it's like getting a reluctant reader to read for fun, so it's quite similar to what I do all day anyway.  But then there are the kids who are working their butt off and are able to run 7 minute miles.  Totally amazing to me.  Our course at Camp Stigwandish (love to say Stigwandish) is tough.  Just past the mile mark there are two hills on a washed out gravel road that are really rough to run and that second hill doesn't end.  The hill itself peaks at the camp office and then the course turns left up a less steep, but much longer grade to the woods turn-in.  I'm dying when I get to that turn-in ~ and I have a kid running the two mile course (after a hill workout) in 13:05.  We've had four weeks of practice and our first meet in Saturday.  It's time for a meet ~ the kids need to see what we've been preparing them for.  Wanting to improve times is a great motivator!
And my running:  I have been running with the kids, so I'm not logging the most miles during the week (SOOOOO hard now that school has started to squeeze in my own runs) but it's been rewarding to share something I love to do with kids.  But I've worked up my long run to 8 miles (so ready for that 7.9 Akron Marathon Relay leg).  I've gone up to the bike path and then continue to run the strip in GotL and wind through a trailer park ~ then back down the strip and the bike path.  It's a good 8 mile run because it has lots of turns and different terrain.  I like that 8 mile long on the weekend and would like to keep that in my schedule (and now we start the cc meets and soccer games on the weekends...best laid plans and all)
I logged 72.5 miles in August for a 2011 total of 340.5.
I only biked that one trip to the towpath for 27 miles and a 2011 total of 354 on the bike.

Best running month of the year!