What a week of PRs!

On Monday, I had the urge to try to break my mile PR. (Nike+ says my mile PR is 9:45, but that’s actually a lie. The GPS just wasn’t registering properly that day, and my actual PR was 10:26.) However, it was 45 degrees outside and, right as I stepped out of my house, began to rain. I’ve never really run in the rain before, always opting for the treadmill when the weather goes bad, but I just really wanted to run, so I did it anyway. I started off at a slow 12:00 min/mile and progressively got faster, up to around a 9:20 min/mile (which is practically flying to me). I ended up not beating my PR, though, coming in just two seconds short! Blame it on the rain.

The next day, I attempted day 1 of week 6 of Couch to 10k, but it did not turn out too well. About halfway through the middle 8 minute run (about a mile and a half in), I got a terrible side stitch and couldn’t continue. I pushed a little further, but ultimately decided it wasn’t happening that day and called it quits.

On Wednesday, I headed out to attempt it again. And again, I got a side stitch about a mile and a half in. I pushed through and finished the 8 minute jogging section before taking a detour to my car for my water bottle. I’m fairly certain all of my side stitches come from dehydration, and I need to remember to carry that thing with me all the time. I just hate holding things when I run. After I hydrated, I got back on track and managed to run another 8 minutes, instead of the 5 I was supposed to. Then I did some sprinting intervals, doing a 30 second sprint, followed by a 1 minute walk. After five of those, I was pretty beat, so I switched to jogging for 90 seconds and walking for 30 until I felt I had run enough and called it a day.

Thursday was the hottest day I have run so far this year. 83 degrees and partly cloudy (not the part I was running in, though; it was all sun with some trees for shade). However, I somehow pushed through the heat to complete day 2 of week 6. This consisted of 10 minutes jogging, a 3 minute walking recovery, and 10 more minutes of jogging. Ugh! I wanted to stop so bad about 3 minutes before the end of the second jogging session; I was feeling kind of nauseated (maybe I drank too much water too fast trying to keep from getting a side stitch, who knows). But I pushed myself and finished it. Too bad because now all my Couch to 10k runs until week 9 include no walking! I managed a 12:17 average pace, with the fastest mile being my second at 11:44.

Friday I received my second pair of running shoes, the Saucony Kinvara 3 (I’ll write more on them later), but I didn’t get a chance to try them out until Saturday. I only did slightly over a mile because (a) they were new shoes and (b) I was second shooting a wedding later that day and didn’t want to be exhausted. However, I did manage to PR, doing a mile in 10:15! Probably due to excitement of new shoes and the fact that the weather wasn’t bad (mid-60s and overcast). But yay!

On Sunday, I donned my usual Skechers for my weekly long run. With the 5k coming up in less than a week, I didn’t want to do too long a run, so for the first part I did a mock 5k. I did Galloway intervals of 3:30 running and 1:00 walking, but tired myself out too quickly, so I may lower the running time for the actual 5k, although it was mostly due to me not pacing well and running too fast, as I am prone to do. However, despite my ill pacing and exhaustion, I still managed to knock nearly three minutes off my previous 5k best and PR at 36:47! Now there’s even more pressure to beat my best time. For the second part of my Sunday training, I did a mile of fartleks. Don’t laugh. They are basically unstructured speed intervals. I always feel like Phoebe when I do them, but they are fun way to increase speed.

So two PRs this week makes me super happy. I only hope that I can keep that up!