Two Weeks Down, Two to Go!

Another Week Done
Had a rough start to this past week's training. My 3 mile run on Memorial Day was so bad! It rained, my legs were so heavy and tired feeling AND I was on the opposite side of the road than I'm used to. I have never walked so much on a 3 mile run...EVER! It felt like I walked half of it - which is possible. Not a very good way to start the day, let alone a holiday!

Took a couple of days of rest and did my speedwork session on Thursday instead of Wednesday. The main reason for that wasn't because I was tired, but because it was raining. This meant that no matter what I HAD to get out on Thursday and do speedwork or skip it, and as I said before, skipping is not an option!

Two By Sixteen Hundred
This speedwork was actually for week one - somehow I read the wrong week. If you stop to think about that, how can I read the wrong week of a 4 week training plan and only be on week 2? Hard to say, but it's my special talent. So this week I did Week 1's speedwork - 2 one mile intervals in 12:05 - YIKES! In the end it is a lot scarier than it really is. I did notice that after lap two, stopping to walk became very appealing! Around two and a half laps I started thinking about how much more I had to do. With all that thinking going on, doing speedwork wasn't all that bad, long, but not bad. In the end I had finished both intervals and shortened my in-between recoveries to 400s, but still did 4 miles total. In the end I felt very accomplished and ended up running each interval way under 12:05 - VERY EXCITING for this girl!

Going Looong
I'm really liking my long run distances right now. 4 or 5 miles - today was 5 miles, but I ended up shorting myself about a quarter mile. For once I'm not going to feel bad about that...I got out and felt REALLY good! The roads/sidewalks were dry, dry and DRY. That makes this runner so very happy! Tom met me along the route...actually not until coming back on 149th Street. I was starting to wonder if we had talked about him actually riding around to meet me somewhere. I had hoped that it was close to the point where I decided to take a walk break so I could get a drink of water from his water bottle. Oh well, I popped a Bit-O-Honey in my mouth and started up again. There is a short, but steep hill toward the end of this route and I was able to run all the way up it! That was good enough for another short walk break and then the big push home.

For some reason I was a little slow today, but no matter, I felt pretty good. Knowing that I had done a hard training run earlier this week made me appreciate the fact that the long run was just a way to relax a little and enjoy the simple act of running.

Future Events

Freedom 5k on June 15. Ridgefield's, Independence Run on July 4th. Every Girl Run 5k and probably the Run Like Hell and Hot Buttered Run.

Crazy me is thinking of doing a half in December. I'll have to train in the dark and rain if I am really serious about doing a half this year. I'll also be messing up some of the training runs with the events that I have in mind already. That shouldn't be too big of a deal, just as long as I getting quality runs done.

I'm really starting to enjoy this running despite the bad runs and feeling awful sometimes. In the end I'm happy that I go out and give my all to something that seemed so unattainable when I started to think outside of the cycling "box" that I lived in for so long. Now, several duathlons and a couple of triathlons later, running has become my go to activity just because of the sheer simplicity of it all. All I need is a good pair of shoes and an event to train for.

run, Run, RUN!!

No More Rain Please

(photo credit: Google Images)

Yeah, so I woke up this morning to hearing rain coming down. I was not in the mood to do yet another training run in the rain. I've done enough in the past couple of weeks. As a native of the good ol' Pacific NW I'm cool with the rain, that's what it does here, but I've had it! The rain slows me down...and I do not like that feeling!

So, I postponed doing Speedwork until tomorrow...easy pilates was on the menu for today. I HAVE to get out tomorrow morning! If not, I'll have to skip this run, and that is not an option. I'm only a little obsessed.

Also, after a brief discussion with the "coach" I'll be doing 2x1600 tomorrow with 800s in-between. That's the plan right now, I could very well revert to last week's intervals...we'll see.

Oh...I'm ahead of Pace Bunny on runningahead.com. That makes me happy.

Becoming Speedy

(photo credit Google Images)

The plan is to do a fartlek session tomorrow. Last week I did a 3x800 training and did alright. Now I'm wondering if maybe I should do the training that I should have done last week this week...which is 2x1600 w/800s in-between (total 4 miles with warm up and cool down). I have yet to make friends with the fact that I would be running at not quite race pace for four laps in 12:05 - TWICE.

My "lightning" quick calculations tells me that I would have 3 minutes to complete each lap - which would be totally doable as last week my 800s allowed me 5:43 per 2 laps and I consistently came up with at least 20 seconds to spare with each interval.

"Coach" Tom (aka the hubby) will be at the track timing my laps - which is nice, but it could be a boring job for him. The good thing is that he'll be on his bike, so he could ride a lap or pace me while I'm running and then sprint ahead to call out times....hmmm...that could work!

I do have a little concern though, I haven't had a decent run since my last speedwork training and have been a little discouraged. Yesterday was miserable as my legs were tired and it was raining and windy - nothing to be discouraged about there...right?

Fartlek Baybee!

Week One Done

So, last week I decided it was time to find an event, register and train for it. This week was week one of a 4 week training plan to run the Freedom 5k on June 15.

This week's training:

Sunday - Rest (gotta psyche myself up for the week)
Monday - Easy 3 miles run
Tuesday - Easy Pilates
Wednesday - Speedwork, Dist: 4 mi, inc Warm; 3x800 in 5:43 w/400 jogs; cool down.
Thursday - Rest (YAAAY)
Friday - Yoga
Saturday - Long run - 4 miles.

Probably the most comfortable run this week was my Monday run - 3 miles, easy-peasy!

Since I have not been good at doing speedwork in the past...because I'm pretty much a whimp...I was pretty proud of myself for doing the whole speedwork plan for this week. I'll tell you what, it HURT, but I did all three intervals in 5:20, 5:19 and 5:16. Also, I was informed by my "Coach" - Tom - that getting faster is not the norm. I should have been getting slower - I guess I'm a little motivated to keep within the time prescribed for each interval :)

Long run Saturday was a little rough. I had sore muscles and was feeling not so great about running. Legs felt a little heavy and my arms were sore (stupid downward dog). I'm hopeful that in a week I'll feel better and do better if I continue to follow my plan. There isn't a reason why I shouldn't.

Next week is pretty much the same, except Long Run will be 5 miles instead.

Freedom 5k here I come - run, Run, RUN!!!

4 Weeks

So, earlier this week I had mentioned that I needed an event to give all this running a sense of purpose.

Well, after some surfin' around yesterday I decided that I should register to do the Freedom 5k on June 15. I thought about doing this run last year, but I don't remember why I didn't. No matter, I'm good to go this year.

I have 4 weeks to get race ready - as in reach my runnersworld.com time goal of 37:10. I can't remember the last time I ran a 5k in a time close to that (although I think my first run at one of my Duathlons may have been an 11+ minute mile). The first two weeks I have speedwork sessions for my second run of the week and then a tempo run in the 3rd week and the final week before the event is SUPER easy and one last speedwork session. Long runs on Saturdays will be either 4 or 5 miles. For once I'm looking forward to Speedwork - go figure. Should be fun - trying to psyche myself into fun training mode.

Tom will be coming with me to the track at the middle school to time my intervals for me, that way I can will know how I'm doing right away and make adjustments as needed. The one thing I'm not terribly excited about is that the intervals are 800s and I will have to do 3 during those particular runs. We'll see how things go - I'm good at making some training days shorter than they should be. However, this morning I did a four mile tempo run (mostly) and managed to do the 4 miles. So really, anything is possible. Just gotta be mentally tough and not let my whimpy body take over, because I KNOW that I'm capable of so much more!

My goal is to keep to the training schedule and not sleep in on Monday because that's what I've been doing. I want the option to do some cross-training on my off days.

Besides the Freedom 5k I'm planning to run the 4th of July run in Ridgefield on the 4th of July (duh) and then I'm hoping to do the Run Girl Run in August. Nothing in September...yet. Run Like Hell in October and then the last run for the year Hot Buttered Run.

The disappointing thing for me is that Tom has not been released to run by his doctor yet so I've been doing a lot of running around the neighborhood by myself. It looks like I may be running a lot of these events by myself, unless he gets a green light before October and he might be able to do Run Like Hell...hoping and praying...

With all these possibilities in place I'm feeling a little more complete as far as what run events I have in mind. Now, if I could only get myself out on the time trial course with the bike club...that would be PERFECT!

This is as of today (May 16)
I'm ahead of pace bunny by 2 miles!

Run, Baby, Run!