Friday, April 29, 2011

Progress

This has been an amazing week for running. First off, we have gone for three family exercise outings, where Jenn rides her bike ( much faster and independently) while James and I jog. This let's me feel like I am still getting family time while also getting a killer workout. I am not used to pushing a toddler, but it is doable. James and I ran yesterday evening sans Jenn with the local running store group. Very fun, and James got a super bright light to play with. ( maybe I was supposed to return it after the run. oh well, he likes it...)
Pushing a nearly thirty pound baby up hills while trying to run fast is a new challenge. James now does this funny heavy- breathing sound that I assume is an impersonation of how I sound near the top of a hill. It is cute. He also likes going on these runs now, and this is key. He gets a juice, some cereal, and has a great time. He gets to flirt with passers- by who invariably think he is adorable, because he is.
Then this morning I ran long- well, 10 miles. It felt so good to run without the stroller that I averaged 8:12 over ten miles! Good music helped, too. I ended feeling like I could have gone further. Then I ate a lot of food. Yay.
So, that makes 20 miles in six days, over five runs. The nice weather and family exercise time are helping me get more regular, but I will not pat myself on the back until I manage to get two good running weeks in a row. We shall see...

Saturday, April 23, 2011

I am a Slacker

I ran Monday, meant to run Tuesday, had a meeting Wednesday, had a visitor to the house Thursday, meant to run Friday but it was raining and I'm a wimp.  I did run today, but just 3.5 miles.  I want to run more, but life keeps getting in the way.  Every week I make plans, but some weeks( well, the majority, actually), I only run about 50% of my planned mileage.
What's confusing lately is the pace for my basic, run-three-or-four-after-school miles is going down.  My pace is now between 7:30-7:45 for regular old runs.  If I plug my 5k or marathon times into a training pace calculator, it tells me that my easy pace should be around 9:00.  So I'm faster than expected for my finish times.  What does it mean?

I think it means that if I were to actually build a good base of 25-35 miles per week, I would be a much faster runner.  35 miles sounds enormous to me right now, but in reality that's just 5 miles per day on average.  It could look like this:

  • Monday- 5
  • Tuesday- 5
  • Wednesday- 5
  • Thursday- 5 
  • Friday- rest
  • Saturday- 10
  • Sunday- rest
...or like this...
  • Monday- 5
  • Tuesday- 6
  • Wednesday- rest
  • Thursday- 6
  • Friday- 3
  • Saturday- 10
  • Sunday- 5
... but it would take more time than I'm willing to give, at least during the school year with a twenty-five minute commute.  Aiming for 25 miles would be much more doable; it could look like this...
  • Monday- 4
  • Tuesday- 6
  • Wednesday- rest
  • Thursday- 6
  • Friday- rest
  • Saturday- 9
  • Sunday- rest
...or like this...
  • Monday- 4
  • Tuesday- 5
  • Wednesday- rest
  • Thursday- 5
  • Friday- 3
  • Saturday- 8
  • Sunday- rest
...and wouldn't take much more time than I already devote.  The problem is that devotion doesn't necessarily lead to me running as planned.  This week, for instance, I planned to run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but it just didn't happen.  The plans are fine, but I am not getting it done.  I only have five weeks of school left, so maybe I'll make better habits this summer.  Fingers crossed... 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Streaking

Not that kind, of course!

As of today, I have run four days straight and six of the last seven days.  This probably sounds normal to a lot of runners, but I have a hard time fitting in more than three-four runs per week.  My post-marathon goal- well, one of them- is to run more consistently.  I'm not pushing for crazy long runs, I just want to get out there more often.

Monday- 3 miles

Tuesday- 2.5 miles in the woods (I forgot my garmin, but it's all good.)
Wednesday- 5 miles

Thursday- 4 miles


Holy cow!  That's a lot of running for yours truly.  Tomorrow is a rest day.  I'll probably do yoga with the bambino; he especially loves to do downward dog and then use his head to balance instead of his arms- I will try to get a picture.   Even though baby yoga almost always degrades into jumping on Mama's belly, airplane rides, and push-ups with toddler on the back, it is really fun.  Not exactly restful, but the stress does melt away.  Saturday I may run ten miles with the local group, but I don't really have a desire to go long yet.  We'll see.

On a non-running note, I have been a single parent this week since my better half has been on a field trip.  The family will be reunited tomorrow.  I am beyond excited.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

What Now?

The marathon is done.  The (running) goal of the last four months, the thing that I've trained for, worried about, planned, and fretted over is no longer on the horizon.  It is finished; 100+ days' work ended in less than four hours.  This past week I had no planned workouts.  I did lots of yoga, waited to run until Friday, then ran Saturday, too, because I chose to.  It felt really good.

It felt really good, but I need to have goals.  Sure, I could run just to run, but when I don't make it a priority I find it difficult to carve out the time.

With that in mind, I have five races set between now and October:
April 23- Eggstravaganza 5k
May 21- Running of the Green 5k
June 25- Fun Fourth 10k
July 4- American Mile
October 8- Cannonball 1/2 Marathon

I want to work on speed with the 5k races and the mile, and I've never run a 10k!  As long as I finish the June race, I will PR.  That's a cool feeling.  The April race is more for fun than to set a PR.  It's the day before Easter, the prizes are chocolate, and there is a kid's race.  It also allows enough time before the May 5k to see if I'm on track to break 22:00.

My goal for April is to run at least four days per week.  I know it's possible, but it will take some time management (or a treadmill?).