Scheduled:
Did: 4mi + 5 strides WITH THE STROLLER (10:04/mi avg, strides @ sub-6:00/mi)
I'd planned on taking the Memorial Day holiday as a true rest day.... but then I got the notice I'd be traveling for work on Wednesday, which would force a rest day. I went back and forth between what to do day, and woke up with tentative plans to go out for a family run. But when one of the running mamas, who's been in overseas for the past few weeks and arrived home yesterday, asked if anyone would be up for a stroller run today, I couldn't pass the opportunity up.
Still, I wanted to get some sort of speedwork in. Real workouts aren't exactly social, and they're also near impossible to do with a stroller (at least safely). I compromised and decided to join the girls for an easy 3-4 and just fit in five strides as I had the right terrain to do it safely.
It's fun to go fast. I took the "out" easy, to warm-up, converse, and scout out the best places along the route for strides on the return. The strides on the "back" felt GOOD. I had zero issues with my calves or any other part of my body. The hardest part, in fact, was realizing I couldn't use my arms AT ALL; having a kiddo along for the ride necessitated keeping both hands on the stroller at all times for the strides. At least I know I actually do use my arms when I'm running normally ;)
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| Hello! |
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| Strides were all a bit shorter than usual (normally ~30s), but I was also beholden to the terrain, which meant slowing up "early" due to turns, change in surface, other pedestrians, etc. Feelin' pretty good about hitting 5s WITH A STROLLER, even if it's only for, like, 100m |
Tuesday
Scheduled: 1.5WU, 3 tempo @ 8:00, 1.75CD
Did: Nailed it
I'm sure I've done it recently, but this was my fourth consecutive day of running, and it felt like I hadn't had a rest day in FOREVER (even though I had one on Wednesday). Combine that feeling with:
1) this being the first day back after a holiday weekend,
2) baby crying out a few times last night and waking me up,
3) this being the first workout I've done since... March 28
I was nervous about this morning. I haven't pushed myself in so long, and I was scared of not being able to do what I was supposed to do, feeling the burn of a hard workout, etc. This is the first time in quite awhile that I've set out to run with an actual goal in mind, which meant it was the first time I could actually "fail". That's always a little intimidating.
The first mile was "a Kenyan warm-up". Once upon a time, Coach Amy told me that the Kenyans usually warm up with a 10min mile. Ever since, B and I have enjoyed joking that we train like Kenyans. lol. Within the first tenth of a mile, I was bringing up the rear. I had no problem running solo if that's what it turned out to be. I'd rather go nice and easy on my warm-up if I was going to have three hard miles to do in the middle.
Mile 1.5 came too quickly for my liking, and Brad and Brandi took off. Even though I wanted to run around an 8:00 for my tempo miles (pace for a 50:00 10K), I didn't want to get caught up on the pace. Brad was well ahead of us, and I let him go, choosing, instead, to focus on my breathing and just run a "comfortably uncomfortable" pace, whatever it ended up being.
Tempo Mile 1: I was comfortable, and keeping an eye on my watch to make sure we weren't too far below the 8:00 pace, because I had concerns about keeping it if I started out too fast-- no trouble.
Tempo Mile 2: Decidedly not comfortable. There were some hills that I never knew existed on the 10KTuesday route until I had to do them at a pace. This was very much a "just get through it" mile, and I wished at the end of it that I only had two tempo miles to do instead of three.
Tempo Mile 3: This was the real workout. I was fatigued and wanting to stop, but gutted it out, literally thinking through laps on a track, and trying to just keep Brad and Brandi in my sights. I was beyond glad when I finally felt the mile vibration in my wrist and could stop.
As soon as that last tempo mile was over, I stopped and walked for about 45s, and then jogged as slowly as I could (clearly not that slow since the pace was still under 10) for the cool-down home. I finished sweaty, disgusting, exhausted... and really proud. It feels good to be back "in training", even if I don't know what I'm training for :P
I'm sure I've done it recently, but this was my fourth consecutive day of running, and it felt like I hadn't had a rest day in FOREVER (even though I had one on Wednesday). Combine that feeling with:
1) this being the first day back after a holiday weekend,
2) baby crying out a few times last night and waking me up,
3) this being the first workout I've done since... March 28
I was nervous about this morning. I haven't pushed myself in so long, and I was scared of not being able to do what I was supposed to do, feeling the burn of a hard workout, etc. This is the first time in quite awhile that I've set out to run with an actual goal in mind, which meant it was the first time I could actually "fail". That's always a little intimidating.
The first mile was "a Kenyan warm-up". Once upon a time, Coach Amy told me that the Kenyans usually warm up with a 10min mile. Ever since, B and I have enjoyed joking that we train like Kenyans. lol. Within the first tenth of a mile, I was bringing up the rear. I had no problem running solo if that's what it turned out to be. I'd rather go nice and easy on my warm-up if I was going to have three hard miles to do in the middle.
Mile 1.5 came too quickly for my liking, and Brad and Brandi took off. Even though I wanted to run around an 8:00 for my tempo miles (pace for a 50:00 10K), I didn't want to get caught up on the pace. Brad was well ahead of us, and I let him go, choosing, instead, to focus on my breathing and just run a "comfortably uncomfortable" pace, whatever it ended up being.
Tempo Mile 1: I was comfortable, and keeping an eye on my watch to make sure we weren't too far below the 8:00 pace, because I had concerns about keeping it if I started out too fast-- no trouble.
Tempo Mile 2: Decidedly not comfortable. There were some hills that I never knew existed on the 10KTuesday route until I had to do them at a pace. This was very much a "just get through it" mile, and I wished at the end of it that I only had two tempo miles to do instead of three.
Tempo Mile 3: This was the real workout. I was fatigued and wanting to stop, but gutted it out, literally thinking through laps on a track, and trying to just keep Brad and Brandi in my sights. I was beyond glad when I finally felt the mile vibration in my wrist and could stop.
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| Oooooh, data |
As soon as that last tempo mile was over, I stopped and walked for about 45s, and then jogged as slowly as I could (clearly not that slow since the pace was still under 10) for the cool-down home. I finished sweaty, disgusting, exhausted... and really proud. It feels good to be back "in training", even if I don't know what I'm training for :P
Wednesday
Scheduled: rest
Did: site visit for work, 15min airport yoga
Did a decent bit of walking a job site; definitely ate like a construction worker today (I don't think ANYTHING I consumed today would have qualified for last week's "Partially Whole 7"); had a delayed flight home so I did a 15min yoga YouTube in an empty corner of the terminal
Did a decent bit of walking a job site; definitely ate like a construction worker today (I don't think ANYTHING I consumed today would have qualified for last week's "Partially Whole 7"); had a delayed flight home so I did a 15min yoga YouTube in an empty corner of the terminal
Thursday
Scheduled: 1mi WU, 10x300tempo/100m recovery, 1mi CD
Did: scheduled workout; total = 5.07 @ 8:33/mi avg
I'd planned on slowly wading back into speedwork with 4x400/400. But then I talked with Coach about the potential to do the mile at Braves last night.  |
So... I suppose that means I'll be racing the mile next weekend. |
...and then I asked her how to spend the next 10 days.
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| Hard workouts? Lots of intervlas/ Erm... but, why? |
Fortunately, I've got a group to get me through the hard workouts. #SpeedworkThursday resumed this morning, with three new members (from the #10KTuesday) crew. Though we had three different workouts scheduled between the six of us, starting and ending together was enough motivation for us all to get out and meet up at 5am.
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| #SpeedworkThursday, getting it done |
My workout was 10x300m hard/100m jog, with the hard being more of a tempo than a true push. That's 10 laps in the track. While it pales in comparison to some of the workouts we did for Chicago, or even the first 5K of the year, I was dreading it from the moment I saw it.
It ended up rocking rhombus. I had anticipated something like a 8min/mi on the hard intervals. Noppppppe. Sub-7 on ALL of them. :D
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| Though, disclaimer: the distance reading on my watch is more than 300m. I ran 300m by track markings, so, even reducing the GPS distance to the 0.186mi (300m), I'm still sub-7 |
Random thoughts about this workout (I had a nice summary written, but computer lost it):
- focused a lot on my arms (since that was a weak link from the Little Kings Mile)
- paid attention to my form too
- proud that I didn't stop for water until lap 7 (normally I'd stop at the quarter points of a workout, etc)
- workout only started to get "hard" after lap 6... which is clearly why I was assigned 10 repeats
- I freaking love the track
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| WEEEE, SPEEDWORK GRAPH |
Friday
Scheduled: DIY strength
Did: 32min weight lifting - BOOM
Traveling again today. Enjoyed getting an opportunity to just lift. My only goal for the day was just to do 30min of whatever sort of lifts came to mind. Did lots of stuff that I've forgotten in the past 48 hours since I didn't write it down. :P
Traveling again today. Enjoyed getting an opportunity to just lift. My only goal for the day was just to do 30min of whatever sort of lifts came to mind. Did lots of stuff that I've forgotten in the past 48 hours since I didn't write it down. :P
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| Wee, muscles! |
Saturday
Scheduled: easy, XT, or off
Did: 3.43 @ 9:00/mi avg, Big 5
Wanted 5-6mi, but wasn't able to make that happen due to schedule constraints. Normally, I just get up early enough to get whatever miles in before my obligations for the day begin. Today, that wasn't an option. I drove my planned route before running it, and found myself SUPER creeped out that on the entire four miles, I didn't see a single other car or person. It was eerie, and I didn't feel safe running it... which sucked.
I waited until sunrise, and was still able to get ~3.5 in. It wasn't the route I wanted, but it was really nice to run around my alma mater... and take a few pics along the way. I didn't run while I was in school, not really, at least. My senior year, my sorority little and I used to walk/run a 2.5mi loop around campus Mondays and Wednesdays to make up for our Friday morning bagel and coffee dates, but that was it. A lot of the parts of that route that felt like mountains back then weren't even hills to me today. That felt good :)
Wanted 5-6mi, but wasn't able to make that happen due to schedule constraints. Normally, I just get up early enough to get whatever miles in before my obligations for the day begin. Today, that wasn't an option. I drove my planned route before running it, and found myself SUPER creeped out that on the entire four miles, I didn't see a single other car or person. It was eerie, and I didn't feel safe running it... which sucked.
I waited until sunrise, and was still able to get ~3.5 in. It wasn't the route I wanted, but it was really nice to run around my alma mater... and take a few pics along the way. I didn't run while I was in school, not really, at least. My senior year, my sorority little and I used to walk/run a 2.5mi loop around campus Mondays and Wednesdays to make up for our Friday morning bagel and coffee dates, but that was it. A lot of the parts of that route that felt like mountains back then weren't even hills to me today. That felt good :)
Sunday
Scheduled: 3-4 with stroller
Did: 3.1 on the treadmill @ 6.5mph (~9min/mi), Big 5, foam rolling
Unpredictable pop-up thunderstorms forced the running mamas to cancel our stroller run this morning (I actually ended up driving out to rescue Jerry who was already part-way through his 12-miler when I heard the first thunderclap). I wanted some mileage, but the rest of the day had 40% chance of thunderstorms, so I turned to our handy-dandy basement treadmill, something I haven't used in.... awhile. Very glad to have it, though!
Unpredictable pop-up thunderstorms forced the running mamas to cancel our stroller run this morning (I actually ended up driving out to rescue Jerry who was already part-way through his 12-miler when I heard the first thunderclap). I wanted some mileage, but the rest of the day had 40% chance of thunderstorms, so I turned to our handy-dandy basement treadmill, something I haven't used in.... awhile. Very glad to have it, though!
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