Friday, February 25, 2011

workouts

So...running this week. Tuesday I did 4 at a decent clip but I didn't wear my watch so I don't have stats for the run.
Thursday – intervals! I recruited my relatively new running friend (she’s actually much faster than me so the interval workout was good – we still had company but we could both get a good workout in too).

My times:
800 - 3:13
400 - 1:34
400 - 1:36
400 - 1:36
400 - 1:36

So I was a little bit slow with the 1/4s but very consistent which is good at least.
We did a bit over a mile warm up and cool down and 1/4 mile recoveries so it was a little over 5 miles for the run. Not bad.
Then I ate delicious thai food and we went out to dinner with friends so not the best eating day. I may have went to town on my remaining converstaion hearts too.
I actually really need to work on my eating because my stomach has been bothering quite a bit lately and I'm guessing it is diet/acid reflux related.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Better short than nothing.

We ended up going to one of our couple friend's for dinner yesterday and it turned into a very late night! It's basically my husband's best friend since he has known since they were kids and his wife that I just adore and get along great with. They just had a baby last year so I got to play with him before his bedtime. We brought a bottle of wine and they served up some delicious shrimp scampi (I justified this as carbo-loading for my long run today - that didn't actually happen afterall but I'll get to that later). A couple more bottles of wine and a mini cream puff and eclair later it was well after 1am by the time we left. It was fun times even if it was hard getting up this morning.
So I put off running as long as I could and I was having trouble deciding what route to run all week. I originally was going to do a step back and just do a 6-7 miler but then I was all but settled on doing 10. In the end, a dying ipod battery and the need to practice hills won out and I ended up doing about a 6 mile loop with some hills thrown in there.

It worked out well though since essentially it was a 5 mile tempo run (7:53 overall pace) with about a .5 mile warmup and cool down.
Mile splits were 8:14, 7:39, 7:34, 7:42, 8:13.

So the first mile was slow, even after the warmup which I'm slighly concerned about. The 3 fastest miles were the ones with the hills but I think the downhill counteracts the uphill on the course I ran so my overall pace ends up faster. It was HARD going back up the hill but I got through it. The course for the race I'll be running in a couple weeks has more gradual hills so that's good but I think it has a lot less downhills which is bad for me.
Overall I'm very happy with this run. It's nice to see the 3 miles sub-8, I really wasn't motivated on my way out the door, it was nice and sunny out and although only in the 20s it felt really comfortable to run in. So, overall very positive!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Heat Wave!

What a warm and beautiful day. It was in the fifties here today. In Central New York. On February 18th! Craziness. Unfortunately, it’s not going to last but I’ll still take it after months of runs in the 20s, teens, and single digits. I knew it was supposed to get colder and windy later on so I headed out for an early run at lunch...in a t-shirt and shorts! Woo-hoo!

My goal was to do some intervals and this proved more challenging than I anticipated due to a pretty strong wind (it's bringing back the cold weather - boo). I decided I better go for it anyway as I knew I’d feel bad if I didn’t get some speed work in.

I did intervals as follows - halves and quarters with 1/4 mile recoveries in between, and then an additional 400 after my run back to work.
800 - 3:30
400 - 1:38
400 - 1:31
800 - 3:29
400 - 1:36
It was a little over a mile warm-up and cool down so about 4.5 miles altogether.

The first ½ and ¼ were into the wind which made them extremely difficult for me. I really wanted to stop during the first half mile and almost ditched the whole effort, but I knew I’d feel like crap about it if I did. So, even though I’m not happy with my times – I’d prefer about 10 seconds off each interval (particularly the 800s) I’m still happy with my effort and that I completed my intended run. Besides, every little bit helps! And I got to eat candy when I was done!
Tomorrow is supposed to be super windy so I might not be running at all, and hopefully Sunday I'll make it out for a longish run again. Glad it's Friday even if it is getting cold again :)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sick

So, weird random sickness struck this afternoon. My stomach has been feeling a little off for a couple days now and this morning it was slightly worse. I still went to work and met up with the girls for a lunchtime run but shortly after that I barely made it through a meeting and had to go home sick. I'm feeling somewhat better but still a little off. Hopefully this will be gone in the morning.
Anyway, back to the run. Due to feeling craptastic I decided not to wear my watch. I thought we'd be going slower but the other girls are both faster than me and the first couple of miles were definitely faster than I would have done on my own. So, overall I mapped it out to be about 4.85 miles which I'm happy with from a distance standpoint. I haven't run since Sunday when I did my long run and my legs were feeling good. I don't know the pace, I'm guessing it was under 8:30 overall. Like I said, the other girls didn't seem as challenged by the run as I did but it may have been due to my sickness as well.
I'm still hoping to be able to run tomorrow and I'd also still like to get an interval workout in this week but I'm not sure if it will happen. Depends on how I'm feeling. I definitely don't want to miss another day but maybe it would be better for me to go easy tomorrow and try for a speed workout Friday. We'll see.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Back!

I decided to blog a bit again - because...well, because why not?
I like to talk about how I'm feeling and what I'm eating and how much I'm running and why and a lot of people in my real life probably get bored hearing about it so maybe whoever finds the old blog-a-roo will be more interested. Or maybe it will be motivating to someone?

Anyhoo - I've been trying to get back into doing more runs again. I kinda fell off the radar last year - I had my awesome (for me it was awesome) 10k, followed it up with a bit more disappointing 5k in May - but still decent (22:26), and a 5k trail run that was VERY tough for me - I don't remember my time right now but it was over an 8:00 min pace. Shortly after that I started missing runs and my training got a little lack luster. I managed a 26:00 min 3.5 race in June and haven't run since!

I did move and oh yeah, get married though. So anyhow - even though its been one of the worst winters I can remember as far as snow/cold and I don't have access to a treadmill I've actually been running more consistently since January than I have in a year!
I'm starting to do longer runs on the weekends and get out at least two other times a week. However, I'm still really lacking in the old speedwork department. I know I need to incorporate some serious speed sooner rather than later.
The last 3 weekends my long runs have looked like this: 8.8 miles - about a mile through a couple inches snow so more like a trail run 9:07(?) pace, 7.55 miles 8:06 pace, today - 9.3 miles 8:26 pace. I was hoping to stay under 8:23 for my run today but overall I feel okay with it. I really didn't feel like going, the first few miles were into the wind and there were some hills. I have been trying to get a little extra hill work in because the next two races I'm planning on are both going to be very hilly. A 4 miler at the beginning of March - not much time left to prepare for that one so I'm just going to try and keep it under 8s (32 minutes) and a very hilly 10 miler in May, which again my goal for will be to keep it under 8s.
And...I signed up for the Chicago marathon - not until October 9th, but I am hoping to rock it!