Monthly Archives: July 2014

07.31.14
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Week of 7/21/14 – 7/27/14

week of 7/21/14 to 7/27/14

Monday: 6x400m speed work
Tuesday: Total Body Cardio from 21 Day Fix
Wednesday: Rest day
Thursday: 4 miles with 2 at goal 10k pace (11:21 average pace)
Friday: 3 miles low heart rate (14:22 average pace)
Saturday: Rest day
Sunday: 6 miles easy (2 miles at 12:48 average outdoors, then 4 miles at 11:02 average on treadmill)

It was a pretty good week! My speed work was strong on Monday; though I did it on the treadmill to avoid the 90 degree temps. The Total Body Cardio workout on Tuesday kicked my butt, so I felt I was too sore to run on Wednesday. (I may have also not wanted to stop playing my Sims game, but we’ll just say it was the soreness.) So I did Wednesday’s run on Thursday instead. It was the same tempo run I had done on Saturday, and, while overall I was slightly slower on each mile, I was still within my goal paces AND I felt much better at the end of it.

Friday I did a lowish heart rate run (although I let my HR get up to 170, instead of keeping it below 150 like I’m supposed to). I found the key to doing this without constantly staring at my watch is just to make sure I solely breathe through my nose. Once I get above 170 bpm, I find myself really really wanting to open my mouth. My average HR for the run was 158, about 10 bpm above where I need it to be for my easy runs.

I got up early on Sunday for my long run, but the heat index was already over 90 at 8am. And then it rose 10 degrees from the time I started until I was 2 miles in. The humidity was so freaking thick. So I stopped. I also wasn’t feeling good. (I may have had a dinner consisting of cake and wine the night before.) So I went home, rested for a bit, then finished the mileage on the treadmill (much easier).

Next week is going to look a lot different since I decided to start LHR training early!

07.28.14
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Let’s be realistic…

I’m probably not going to get a sub-30 minute 5k at Saturday’s race.

I have to run HOW fast?

I have to run HOW fast?

In fact, it just occurred to me TODAY that I have a goal race on Saturday. I do not feel prepared for it. And while the possibly-60 degree and cloudy weather that’s being called for that morning sounds promising, I just don’t know if I can hold a 9:40 pace for three miles. I’ve only ran four sub-10 minute miles this month, and only one of them was 9:40 or faster (and that was the downhill first mile of the July 4th 5k). I just don’t feel like I’ve been running enough miles per week to have obtained any new speediness. I’ve also been eating like crap.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still going to TRY, but I’m just setting my expectations low.

I do have at least one more 5k this year, but it comes in the middle of low heart rate training, so I doubt I’ll be feeling speedy for it.

Actually, I’m thinking of scrapping the rest of my current training plan and just starting LHR training earlier. It certainly can’t hurt to build on my base for an extra month and my 10k goal in September isn’t all that important to me. Then maybe I can try for my sub-30 again in December after half training has started up again, since that seemed to work well for the Fangtastic 5k!

07.25.14
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Week of 7/14/14 – 7/20/14: My cooler weather prayers were answered!

week of 7/14/14 to 7/20/14

Monday: Cardio Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Tuesday: 35 minutes crosstraining, 4 mile easy run (11:17 average pace)
Wednesday: Upper Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Thursday: Tempo hill intervals
Friday: Pilates Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Saturday: 4 mile run with 2 miles at 10k goal pace (10:56 average pace)
Sunday: Yoga Fix workout from 21 Day Fix

This week was much stronger than last week! I’d like to thank the not-really-a-polar-vortex that came through and cooled us down to the low 80s.

You’ll notice I have a few workouts from the 21 Day Fix program on here. I’m not “officially” doing the program until towards the end of August (which is why they are out of order and not every day). But I’m using the time beforehand to test out the workouts, see how they fit into my running schedule, and find recipes I like to work into the meal plan.

Also, that cardio workout I did on Monday kicked my butt! I was sore until Friday because of it. Burpees, mountain climbers…it had all the rough moves.

07.21.14
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Tempo Hill Intervals: Now with Bonus Interval!

On Thursday, I had another round of hills. No, I didn’t skip up them this time.

My training plan (which has changed dramatically since I got injured) called for 3x hills. That didn’t sound so bad.

I had read an article about tempo hill intervals, a variation of short hill intervals that didn’t allow as much recovery. I don’t know why I decided to torture myself, as if just hills aren’t bad enough, but I thought this was a good idea.

The article says to run up a hill just faster than 10k pace for about 50 seconds. Then jog back down, only taking about 5 seconds longer. Repeat 12 times. Um, yeah, maybe on a less steep hill.

If you recall, my goal 10k pace is 10:26. However, that’s probably not my current 10k pace. I have no idea really what that is. So I just aimed for 10:30 pace.

I went to that awful hill I hate. This hill has what I can only describe as runaway bike decks all along the side of it. Like those runaway truck ramps on the side of the interstate on long downhill sections? Except these are wooden and look like small decks and it would probably really suck for you if your breaks went out and you had to use one of them. Anyway, that will probably give you some indication of how steep the hill is. It needs runaway bike decks.

I placed my water bottle at the first one towards the bottom of the hill, so I would know where I was aiming on my way down. I had done about a half mile warmup and forgot to check my watch to time my 50 seconds before I took off on my first interval. So I just basically had to guess when 50 seconds was up. I stopped at the next to last deck thing (which also has a pole with a big orange ring painted around it to make it easy to aim for). My watch said 56 seconds (probably a little less, since I didn’t have my button pressing down to a science yet), 10:28 pace. Okay, not bad.

I jogged back down the hill in 1:04, a little slower than I was supposed to. I also maybe took a quick standing-around-panting break and drank some water at the bottom, even though that defeats the purpose of the tempo intervals, but it wasn’t a long break.

Back up the hill! This one was slower. Much slower. It took 1:02 this time, which is about an 11:23 pace. That won’t do. Back down the hill in 1:05, another quick break.

I told myself for the third one that it was the last one I HAD to do (though I thought I probably had enough for two more in me). 55 seconds, 10:42 pace. A little slower than I wanted, but not bad. I wanted to do one more to prove that I could do a 10:30 pace, even being as exhausted as I was. So back down and a short break.

The fourth interval was done in 54 seconds, 10:31 pace. Close enough! Down the hill, where I grabbed my water bottle for a sip.

Then I decided, what the heck. Bonus interval time! I wanted to go all the way to the top for an extra dose of mental fortitude. I took off from the bottom, but I was so worn out by the middle, I felt like I was just barely running. I wanted to stop so many times. So many times. I finally made it to the top, after what felt like an eternity, but was actually only 1:26. I kinda wished I was wearing my HR monitor because I thought I was going to die at the top; I had to have hit max HR. I managed to average a 10:46 pace over the entire length. Not too shabby!

Then I had a nice half mile cooldown to bring my mileage to an even two miles. So I was supposed to do three intervals, and ended up doing five, with the last one being longer. Feel the burn!

post-running selfie

So happy to be done with hill intervals!

07.18.14
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Week of 7/7/14 – 7/13/14: Can I get some cooler weather around here?

week of 7/7/14 to 7/14/14

Monday: 5x400m speed work
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 15 mins of crosstraining; 3 miles (10:26 average pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: 3 miles easy (12:28 average pace)
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: 3.86 miles out of 6 miles (12:00 average pace) with another mile or so of mostly walking and some strides that I didn’t record

Not my greatest week.

I cut short a few intervals of my speed work on Monday. My run on Wednesday was supposed to be 10k goal pace steady, but I took several walk breaks. Even Friday’s easy run was a struggle because of the heat (and going sockless), and it took hours afterwards for my heart rate to go back to normal. Sunday’s run I ended up cutting 2 miles short.

Most of this was because nearly all of my runs this week were done in above-90 degree temps. Uggh. It makes it so hard to hit paces and to not take walk breaks, and I end up so dehydrated. But even Wednesday’s run, which was indoors on a treadmill, was rough to get through. I had sweat literally flinging off of me in every direction; I was so happy no one was on the machines next to me!