Meet of the Miles

A Monday night in January was the annual Meet of the Miles. This year was my first year participating in it. It is a fun event with lots of super speedy people at it. Everyone races the same distance...1 mile. There were 10 heats broken down by the time you expected to run. I wasn't sure what I could do since I haven't done any speed work for a while so I decided to sign up for the group planning to finish in 6:00 to 6:30.

I warmed up for a couple of miles while the faster heats were racing. It was so fun to watch the fast guys and gals race. I was hoping to run into a couple people that I have been wanting to meet for a while now. One is my fellow Oiselle teammate, Melissa and the other is Steve of Steve in a Speedo.

I ran into Steve right away and wished him good luck in his race. He was planning to run a 4:55. Yeah, he is a speedy guy.

I grabbed a photo with Steve after the meet.

I ran into Melissa just before the heat in which she was planning to run. I said good luck and watched her tear up the track. She is one super speed lady.

Me and Melissa post race.

I was in the 7th heat. I was hoping to finish around 6:00 to 6:15 but I hadn't done any speed work so my expectation where low for actually running that time.

The race started and I got behind a couple women. I was running 4th in my heat. The women slowly pulled away but I was running pretty even splits (45 sec) so I stuck with running my own race even though I really wanted to go with them.



I felt like I was on my own for laps 5 and 6 but pictures show there were people behind me. I didn't hear them. I was slowly reeling in the 2nd women and caught up to her at the start of the 7th lap. I decided to stay behind her for the lap which I shouldn't have done. I should have passed her with confidence and gone hard the last 2 lap.

I am in 3rd place in my heat here. I passed the women in green on the 7th lap.

Coming down the straight away on the 7th lap, I knew that I need to pass her and run as hard as I could. I only had 1 lap to go. I passed her and picked up the pace as much as I could. I  was going to say sprinted but lets be realistic, I can't sprint. I really have one pace and that is slow. I love to run long distances. A 1 mile race is way out of my comfort zone but it was so much fun. I look forward to running it again next year.

I finished in just under 6 min (5:59.9) according to the print out right after the race. Then when the official results came out, they listed my finish time as 6:00.4. I really wanted to finish in under 6. I was so close. Next time, I will get under 6.

Post race. Still catching my breath.

Overall, It was a great experience to race such a short distance again.

Other exciting news, I got to wear my Oiselle singlet for the first time! I was so fun representing Oiselle at a local race!

Alter-G Anti-Gravity Treadmill

I have been doing physical therapy for my hip for a couple months now. I am working on strengthening my hips and glutes.

The place where I go to PT just got a new treadmill, the Alter-G Anti-Gravity treadmill. My PT was telling me all about it at my last session. I saw the treadmill at the ACSM conference a few years ago. It sounded amazing. It applies a lifting force (air) to the body that reduces weight on the lower extremities.

After my PT session today, my PT asked if I wanted to use the treadmill for my run. Of course, I jumped at the chance to use it. I loved it.

You start out by putting on a pair of neoprene shorts (over your shorts) that zip into the treadmill to form a seal. The treadmill weighs and fill up with air. Then you select what percent of your weight in which you want to run and increase the speed. You are off and flying. I mean flying and not working as hard as you normally work. Imagine being able to run at only 50% of your body weight. You can run so much faster.

Source

I ran for 45 min. I played around with the percent of my weight in which I was running. It was fun at 50% but because I wanted to still get a workout so I set it at 80% of my weight. Then I laid down 7 min miles like it was nothing. It was amazing.

The Alter-G websites says "Run or walk like you are on the moon." Well, I love the idea of less gravity but the lack of oxygen on the moon would make it so much harder. :) So running on the moon for me is a toss up, less gravity, less oxygen. I think I will stick to this treadmill.

I will jump at the chance to run on this treadmill again.