I’m switching to Strava’s new weekly stats screenshots because I like how they look better than Nike’s.

Monday and Tuesday, we were still in Florida, so all the miles I was putting in was walking around theme parks. My first run of the week was on Thursday, which is speed workout day. I know I said I was going to do these with the group, but I ended up doing this one solo for a couple reasons. First, they were doing a 2 mile warmup, which I know would have exhausted me before I even started the speed workout. Second, I knew Jonathan wanted to go see “Her” so I wanted to go earlier than the group was anyway. I did a short jogging warmup of about a quarter of a mile, then started my first ascent up the hill. Oy. I wish I would have remembered to hit the lap button on my watch at the top of the hill, but I only hit it at the bottom after I jogged back down, so I can’t tell you exactly how fast I went up that thing, but it looks like I was averaging around an 8 min/mi pace. All of the repetitions (including the jog back down) averaged between a 10-10:30 min/mi overall pace, so I think I kept them fairly consistent. I will try to remember this week to hit my lap button at the top AND the bottom. Anyway, I was finished before the group even got there.

I could feel the workout in my quads and glutes on Friday, so I was thankful it was a rest day.

On Saturday, I went out to do five miles easy. I have this whole “Couch to 13.1” plan that I’ll detail out later (if it works, ha), but it basically is run/walk intervals like Couch to 5k where the running intervals increase from week to week. This being the first week of training, all of my easy runs were to be done with intervals of 3 minutes running, 1.5 minutes walking. I felt very strong on this run, despite the 20 mph winds and that I was running on a fairly hilly route (low grade hills, just lots of them). I ended up averaging a 12:33 min/mi pace, which is the best 5 miles I’ve had since October and right on target for my easy run pace. My running interval paces ranged from 10:09 min/mi to 12:15 min/mi, most in the 11-12 min/mi range.

Sunday was long run day, which was only 5.5 miles this week. I did the same intervals as Saturday, but I was noticeably slower starting out (well, except for the first mile, which was faster…oops). Actually, my running portions were about on par with what I had been doing Saturday (ranged from 10:36 min/mi to 12:20 min/mi), but I was walking slower on my walk breaks. I could tell my legs were fatigued, but after the second mile, I began speeding up a little each mile, and finished with an average pace of 12:50 min/mi. I actually did a little over the prescribed mileage because I don’t like ending on a walking interval. Not too shabby, considering I really needed to roll out my IT band on my left side (boy, was that sore for some reason!).

So not a bad first week of Country Music Half training. I’m a little sore, but hoping some yoga early in the week will help.