This morning’s run mixed things up, literally – 10 miles total, the middle 6 alternated between a 10K pace and a marathon pace (goal 6:45 and 7:30 respectively). At the start of each mile I ran 3 minutes at the 10K pace and then finished out the mile at the marathon pace. I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous about my ability to seamlessly shift gears for 6 straight miles without...
Greetings from storm central! Today has been wet and booming, though I’m not sad that things are cooling off after a steamy run this morning. Also, I seem to keep missing the inclement weather by a window of a few minutes on my morning runs, so I have managed to stay dry and unscathed. This morning I also managed to turn off my alarm in my sleep in a way that ended all subsequent snooze...
This morning I had a fun workout – 12 x 400 (goal 1:40), with 1 minute recoveries and a 2 mile warm-up and cool down. I ran the 400s on a flat stretch, cranked my music, and let it rip. Man, it felt good, like really good – fist-pumping, high-fiving good. At the end of the 12 repeats my legs were sufficiently tired, and I started the slow crawl home. Some days it seems like some runs...
It’s a bad idea to sit down to write about your recent training when you’ve hit your afternoon wall, right? Oh well, here we go anyway. I blame today’s heat and humidity for my lethargy, though have vowed never to complain about weather extremes again. Usually the complaint goes something like “I would much rather it were 5 degrees right now instead of 90!” (This is...
After being bone tired yesterday, like barely able to walk home tired, I accomplished my two main goals for last night and this morning: 1) sit on couch and enjoy my ongoing Gilmore Girls reunion; and 2) go to bed early and sleep the fuck in. I’m happy to report I stayed awake for two full episodes with the Lorelais, not to mention that one of these was probably my favorite episode, and...
Yesterday morning as I pondered the eight miles I was about to tackle, it hit me: eight is my new normal. As my training is increasing, obviously so is my mileage, and more and more eight milers are sneaking onto my training calendar as easy runs. I remember when I got to the point last fall that I was doing a mid-week long(er) run that started to hover around eight miles, namely because it was a...
Yesterday I did want us runner-type people tend to do, which is to use the holiday (July 4th) as a reason to get up at 4:40 AM, fumble around in the dark for my running gear, drive an hour, stand for another hour in cold(ish) drizzle, wait for a loud horn to go off, and then attempt to run 3.1 miles as fast as I could. It’s been so long since I’ve raced a 5k that I honestly had...
I’m sitting here today with warm, tired legs from this morning’s speed workout, and that awesome sense of accomplishment when you’ve given a workout your all. Heck, I was even a good runner and went to bed early last night. It’s been a little under a month since I jumped on board with a coach, and I am loving having someone help me kick things up a notch. I love checking...
This past week I was visiting my family in the mountains, which meant very little runnable terrain. Super steep climbs, no road shoulders, and scary wildlife meant I was happy to park myself in the basement with the treadmill. Perhaps this was less adventurous than hoofing it up the mountainside, but I think this was my preferred method of off-roading. Fortunately I survived, dare I say thrived...
Hello, and happy Wednesday! Man, I have no idea how I dragged myself out of bed to run this winter because I am really loving the light coming through my window before 6 AM. It no longer feels like an epic display of willpower to turn off my alarm and get up, and when I spied my headlamp hanging from my closet door this morning I did not feel anything remotely like nostalgia. I mean, I know we do...
