Monthly Archives: January 2015

01.08.15
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Happy Holidays!

This post is a little late, but I hope everyone had a good holiday season!

happy holidays!

The weekend before Christmas, my running group had a holiday party and we played Dirty Santa. I ended up with a goodie bag with epsom salt, Aleve, body glide, and hand sanitizer!

epsom salt and aleve

We also did an ugly sweater run that morning and then ate lots of yummy food.
ugly sweater group run

We spent Christmas Eve at Jonathan’s parents’ house, then went back to his apartment to open our gifts from each other. I was utterly spoiled this year! In addition to a new crock pot that I needed (handles and knobs have fallen off my old one…plus this one is fancy, with timers and everything!), I received “The Notebook” on DVD, Dragon Age 3 (my current time suck), the new She & Him album, and this gorgeous diamond infinity necklace.

infinity necklace

On Christmas Day, we headed up to Clarksville to spend it with my family. I got several running-related things from my parents, including a new Sweaty Bands headband, a super comfy Brooks hoodie, and some thicker Brooks running tights (with pockets!) that I had asked for.

new running gear

For New Year’s Eve, my friends Jason and Becka came down from Illinois and we headed out to the Five Spot in East Nashville, who was hosting a ’50s and ’60s themed dance party. So much fun! (I also apparently discovered that despite not liking Jack or Coke by themselves, I do enjoy them together.)

new years at five spot

Hope everyone else had a good holiday! Did anyone else receive any running-related gifts?

01.05.15
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Week of 12/29/14 – 1/4/15: Tom King Half Training, Week 7

week of 12/29/14 to 1/4/15

Monday: 6 miles easy (11:45 avg pace)
Tuesday: rest day (Preds game)
Wednesday: rest day (NYE)
Thursday: 5(ish)x800m fast – 3.4 miles total (10:42 avg pace)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 4x1mi tempo – 5.6 miles total (10:50 avg pace)
Sunday: 9 miles (10:41 avg pace)

This was not an easy week.

Thursday’s speed work was uggh. I was supposed to do six intervals, but I had somehow forgotten to take my asthma medicine that morning, so I called it quits after about 3/4 of the way through the fifth interval so I wouldn’t, you know, die. You can tell I was getting progressively slower too; my average pace for the intervals were as follows: 9:00, 9:04, 9:16, 9:20, 9:25. Still, all faster than my prescribed 9:30-9:45 pace, which is kind of amazing considering how dehydrated I was after the previous night’s festivities.

I didn’t fare much better on Saturday. The training plan called for 5x1mi at tempo pace, which is 9:45-10:00. I struggled to reach that, despite being paced by Jonathan, and ended up stopping after four intervals. The paces for the ones I completed were 10:03, 9:39, 10:25, and 9:57. Can you guess which two had the hill?

Despite the rough time I was having, I did really well on my nine miler on Sunday. It was cold and rainy, but I managed to run my fastest run of the week and my fastest long run ever. My knees didn’t even ever hurt (possibly because it was mostly flat…my knees seem to act up more on hillier routes). I feel pretty confident that I will, at least, get a PR at the Hot Chocolate 15k next month.

01.02.15
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2015: Goals!

After conquering all of last year’s goals, I was ready to make some new ones! In 2014, I was mainly focused on my 5k time. But 2015 will be the year of the half marathon! (I’m already signed up for four!)

  1. Run a half marathon in 2:15:00 or less.
    This one kind of scares me, but I think I can do it! That’s chopping a little over 12 minutes off my half PR, so less than a minute per mile. I’m hoping to achieve this at the flat Tom King Classic Half in March, but I’m also signed up for another goal half in April and may do one in the late summer/fall as well!
  2. Run 1000 miles this year!
    It seems like so many, but I achieved my (secret) goal of running 750 in 2014. So that’s only about 5 more miles per week. Doesn’t sound so bad when you say it that way, right? Plus training for multiple halves will help with this, since I usually run 100 miles a month or more at peak half training.
  3. Coach a Couch to 5k Group.
    I only know of one group in the area that really does this, and that’s the East Nasties with their Potato to Tomato training. I really wanted to do this last year, but the timing wasn’t right because the training starts right about the time that Bonnaroo happens. I don’t know if it will be the same way this year or if I can find another group that does it during another part of the year, but I think I would super enjoy doing this.

I will probably sprinkle in some more volunteering this year, like I did last year, as well. I love giving back!

My non-running related goals this year include paying off all my credit card debt (I’m on track to do so in the fall) and reading more.