Wednesday, July 20, 2011

[Fill In The Blank] Training, Week 1

I'll be honest, I don't know what I'm training FOR at this point.  I've been filing most of my running lately under "base for XC" but without a goal race for the fall I am floundering around a little bit. I had a really great week of training this past week that almost started looking more like a HM/marathon week, if you don't count the shorty of a long run.  I guess I'm just trying to remember what it feels like to say to myself "hey, you don't feel like running right now? TOO BAD, suck it up and get it done."  So far, it seems to be working, even though the high heat of summer is by far the most difficult time for me to motivate myself to get out there.  I seriously think I sweat more than anyone else I know - last night I went out for an easy run in what I would consider to be acceptable weather (79, dark) and I was still a disgusting mess by the time I finished.  But last week was a great week for getting the miles in - 47.3 miles, my highest in quite some time.

Monday - 6.25 easy.  Running on Monday is something I really need to get back into...lately I have been taking Monday off, and then being a slacker on the weekend because I want to do something fun, and so taking another day off.  But if I run on Monday...that's OK! Plus it sets a nice tone for the week.

Tuesday - GBTC workout, 2 x 4000m of 300 hard/100 easy. NOT an easy workout, especially since it was 90+ degrees and humid.  I'm proud of myself for going back to practice, but at the same time it was frustrating getting left in the dust on the warmup and doing most of the workout by myself.  My usual running partners are working Tuesday nights so it's kind of not so motivational to go to practice just to work out alone.  But I was satisfied with the effort, even though I was sick to my stomach for a couple of hours afterward. 9.25 miles total.

Wednesday - Double day! 2.75 miles in the AM, 5.25 in the PM, both very easy.  Doubling at least once a week is becoming a really nice part of my schedule - I like splitting up the day into shorter runs and of course tacking on the miles is nice. :)

Thursday - 7.6 tempo, felt great and was running ~7:05 pace for 5 miles, and then just died, haha. Good run though.

Friday - 10.6 long. Seriously, I went out for 4 miles and then I just could. not. stop! Did this one in the Kinvaras and just felt unstoppable.  I had "Edge of Glory" on repeat and the weather was nice...I think both of those things helped haha.

Saturday - OFF!

Sunday - 5.6 easy, wanted to do 8 to hit 50 for the week but it just wasn't in the cards.

All in all, I'm pretty darn happy with how this week went - it looks like a real person training week!  I'm headed to Wisconsin for a wedding + northwoods vacation for the next week and a half, so training most likely won't be quite as intense...but it also will likely be supplemented with mountain biking, hiking, swimming...etc.  So excited!

Friday, July 01, 2011

June Recap!

2 posts in 1 day? What is this madness?  Just had to finish out the week/month with my June stats analysis.  It was a good month, things are finally back on the upswing.

Miles run: 159.0
Rest days taken: 5 [+ 2 days when I ran/walked less than 3 miles with Andrew]
Differential from May: +55.2 miles
Highest mileage week: 40.5 [6/20-6/26]
Races: 1, an surprisingly solid 5K!

Current read: Song of the Silk Road - Mingmei Yip
Actually just finished this one, while I wasn't always a fan of the writing style (kind of awkward and overly descriptive at times) I got totally sucked into the story and ended up really enjoying it!

Current guilty pleasure:

Sigh. Lady Gaga, you scare me, but I am completely obsessed with this song.  Also, RIP Clarence Clemons.

Current excitement: Starting my last real-person-job free summer!
Oh, and the fact that my beloved training website, runningahead.com, just added a training plans feature. Because I am an epic nerd. :)

July Goals

First I will give myself a big pat on the back because...I am officially done with my first full time PT clinical! It went SO well and I feel like I learned an insane amount...I'll definitely miss my patients (especially adorable old men) but at the same time I am happy to say hellooooooo summer! Welcome back to my life, lazy days of reading for pleasure, staying up late for no reason, and running whenever I feel like it!  However with my new abundance of free time, I've decided I really need to set some goals for myself to keep from slacking.  Soo here are my goals for July!

1. Go back to GBTC practice.
2. Go back to GBTC practice.
3. GO BACK TO GBTC PRACTICE!

Enough is enough.  I need to put on my big girl pants and get back to track workouts...yes they are going to be hard, but with nothing else on my schedule I really don't have the excuse of "I don't have time to take the train over there" any more.

4. Go to yoga at least once a week, preferably more.
I can tell when I don't go to yoga...my legs (hammies especially) get mad.  Now that I'm free to go to any class that any studio offers time-wise, its' time to take advantage!

5. At least 20 minutes of strength training, 3x per week.
It's 20. damn. minutes.  I really have no excuse for slacking on this even when I'm busy.  Gotta put the goal out there to make myself do it though...

6. Race at least once.
Self explanatory. A 5 mile or 10K would be ideal.  In theory I could race an 8 miler in Stowe on the 17th...but...yeah...my preparedness for a hilly 8 miler is questionable at this point.  We'll see.

7. Higher mileage than June. No excuses.

Now that they're on paper, I have to do it, right? However, we'll put off the goals for one more day because I have some clinical completion celebration to do. If you'll excuse me....