I was dreading practice last Tuesday night. 5 mile race? It's HARD to push yourself for 5 miles. I have been in a "running slump" lately, and I find it almost impossible to have motivation to push myself hard anymore. At the end of the 5 mile loop, instead of feeling near-death and nauseous, I felt OK. Which is not what the workout was supposed to be. Maybe I should start running with music. Or try to run with the intermediates and push myself for shorter distances.
Anyway, my 5-miler was OK. I ran with another mentor, Carlos, for the first half. Then I let him run ahead and tried to fall into my own pace. I always slow down when I let my running buddy run ahead of me. It is kind of like giving up. No matter what, I always push myself at the end though, which is a good jumping off point for success in the rest of my runs. My time ended up being 48 minutes, which is much slower than I had been running last season and up until the beginning of this year, but I guess I did take some time off running and my body does have four months until the marathon to get fast again.
On Saturday, we had our long run day. I had planned to run with Lauren (my running buddy from Disney) in the 9:30 pace group (which would have been comfortable previously). I had so much trouble warming up my legs, so I dropped back to a slower pace and ran with a new half-marathoner, Becky. I love running with new people during these long runs. It's amazing how much you will learn about a person before you even find out their name. Runner's are a very close knit crowd :-) Anyway, I ran the 1st 5 miles with Becky, and then Lauren caught up with us after running 6. I ran with Lauren most of the rest of the 2nd loop. Lauren and I have spent countless hours running together since we met September of last year for the Disney Marathon. She has come so far since our last marathon together. In fact, she ran the Long Island Marathon alone and PR'd by 40 minutes! (from a 4:44 to a 4:04). She gave me some pointers to get back on track with my speed work. I need to get back on the treadmill and do my speed/interval training no matter how much I hate it! I have been do interval workouts on the treadmill for the past 2 days, so hopefully I will see some progress soon.
Also, that Saturday, our crazy coach, Ramon, was celebrating his 42nd birthday by doing 42 upper loops of the park! For those who don't know, the upper loop is the hilliest loop of the park. I try to avoid it at all costs. It is 1.5 miles. He ran 65 hilly miles on Saturday! Thats insane! (I guess he is training for another 100 miler, so I already knew he was insane). What an impressive man.
Tonight our workout consists of running the 6 mile full loop around the park, and pushing ourselves to 10K and 5K paces at various points throughout the loop, with recoveries to follow. This one seems a little more do-able than fast the entire run :-)
I just got the new Ipod shuffle in the mail! Its 4GB, and TINY. There's not even room for a dial! It talks to you and tells you what you're listening to you and gives you choices of playlists. It's amazing what technology can do! It should be great for running!
(I got the darker color)
Hopefully I can handle this weather! Should be a long summer...
Anyway, my 5-miler was OK. I ran with another mentor, Carlos, for the first half. Then I let him run ahead and tried to fall into my own pace. I always slow down when I let my running buddy run ahead of me. It is kind of like giving up. No matter what, I always push myself at the end though, which is a good jumping off point for success in the rest of my runs. My time ended up being 48 minutes, which is much slower than I had been running last season and up until the beginning of this year, but I guess I did take some time off running and my body does have four months until the marathon to get fast again.
On Saturday, we had our long run day. I had planned to run with Lauren (my running buddy from Disney) in the 9:30 pace group (which would have been comfortable previously). I had so much trouble warming up my legs, so I dropped back to a slower pace and ran with a new half-marathoner, Becky. I love running with new people during these long runs. It's amazing how much you will learn about a person before you even find out their name. Runner's are a very close knit crowd :-) Anyway, I ran the 1st 5 miles with Becky, and then Lauren caught up with us after running 6. I ran with Lauren most of the rest of the 2nd loop. Lauren and I have spent countless hours running together since we met September of last year for the Disney Marathon. She has come so far since our last marathon together. In fact, she ran the Long Island Marathon alone and PR'd by 40 minutes! (from a 4:44 to a 4:04). She gave me some pointers to get back on track with my speed work. I need to get back on the treadmill and do my speed/interval training no matter how much I hate it! I have been do interval workouts on the treadmill for the past 2 days, so hopefully I will see some progress soon.
Also, that Saturday, our crazy coach, Ramon, was celebrating his 42nd birthday by doing 42 upper loops of the park! For those who don't know, the upper loop is the hilliest loop of the park. I try to avoid it at all costs. It is 1.5 miles. He ran 65 hilly miles on Saturday! Thats insane! (I guess he is training for another 100 miler, so I already knew he was insane). What an impressive man.
Tonight our workout consists of running the 6 mile full loop around the park, and pushing ourselves to 10K and 5K paces at various points throughout the loop, with recoveries to follow. This one seems a little more do-able than fast the entire run :-)
I just got the new Ipod shuffle in the mail! Its 4GB, and TINY. There's not even room for a dial! It talks to you and tells you what you're listening to you and gives you choices of playlists. It's amazing what technology can do! It should be great for running!
(I got the darker color)
Hopefully I can handle this weather! Should be a long summer...
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