8 weeks sounds way shorter than 2 months, FYI. Wow, I should really try to post more than once a week haha. Now I have all SORTS of stuff to ramble about and this entry is going to be looong...oh well, bear with me. :)
First up, the boring weekly numbers:
Runs: 5
Workouts: 2
Longest run: 20.5 miles
XT: 1 hour yoga....annnd that's about it :)
Total running miles: 56.3
You'll notice that I only ran 5 times this week...yes, I succumbed and took an unplanned day off on Thursday. I had 6 miles on the schedule, but I ended up working a 9 hour day instead of the usual ~6, then was exhausted and hungry by the time I got home, was super sore from Tuesday's workout, and the final straw was that the BF tempted me with fajitas. Sooo I felt really guilty for awhile - does that happen to anyone else? I feel like when I get to this level in my training I really beat myself up if I miss a run for a reason other than being really sick or injured. In this case though, I think it really ended up being a MUCH needed mental/physical health day...and also, I don't think I would have been able to run 40 miles in the back half of the week if I hadn't taken the day off.
This week was CHALLENGING! Of the days I ran, 4/5 were in the double digits, and 4/5 were either workouts or moderate days. I also backloaded my week like crazy and so ended up doing 40 miles from Friday-Sunday...something I don't really want to ever do again. I had some really fantastic workouts that boosted my confidence though. Tuesday we got some gross slushy snow/rain, so I wound up doing my fartlek workout on the treadmill.
Confession: I really like doing fartleks on the treadmill. I think it's the one and only kind of workout that I can be OK with running to nowhere, because I really enjoy knowing that I'm actually running the pace I'm supposed to be running, and having to change the pace every few minutes makes the time fly. I really can't believe I actually ran 11+ miles on a TM buuut I guess there's a first time for anything? Anyway, the workout was 10 miles with 2 minutes @ 10K pace every 5 minutes....orrr just 10 miles of 2 minutes @10K, 3 minutes easy. I originally got scared off by the speed/distance combo and figured I would warm up for 10 minutes, then do ~13 sets of the fartlek for a total of about 8 miles fartlek, and then do a 10 minute cooldown. It was kind of hilarious doing this at the gym, because I swear at least 3 sets of people came in, did their entire workout, and left in the time that I was on the treadmill. Luckily we don't have time limits so no one gave me a second glance...except one guy next to me who kept peeking at my treadmill to see how fast I was going, lol. I actually felt really, really good. I put the TM on 7:03 for most of the 10K sections, only dialing it down to 7:08 when I was reeeeally feeling it. Before I knew it I was at my 13th interval and of course, being me, I thought what the hell? I can totally actually make it to 10 miles of this. So I finished it out, including a sprint to the finish after the last 2 minute 10K interval. I got off the treadmill and thought I was pretty much going fall over haha. BUT - I had made it!! This was one of those workouts that had totally terrified me and I was SO proud to have completed it and completed it strong! Hopefully I can channel this in a few weeks when I have the same workout on the schedule...except the times are reversed...gulp!
I had a fun tempo run experience at the Fresh Pond race on Saturday...EVERY single Saturday, there's an informal race around the reservoir - either 1 lap [2.5 miles] or 2. There were about 25 or so people racing and something about it I just really enjoyed - you show up, someone says "ready set go", you run, and then when you're done they take down your time. It was the perfect stimulus for a solid tempo effort - not like an all out race where you're really shooting for a PR, but also a little something extra to push you more than just being out there by yourself. The first lap I felt really smooth and just cruised - I had no idea how fast I was running but the effort seemed about right. I came through the 2.5 mile at 18:29, which I knew was a little fast for the "HM-MPace" that I was supposed to be running, but whatever. The second lap definitely got harder, but still under control. I was sort of pacing off a couple of men who were also doing the 5 miler, so it was kind of nice to have someone to keep my eye on. I wound up finishing in 37:01, so I hardly slowed down at all the second lap - a very evenly paced tempo run, which is EXACTLY what I wanted to get out of this workout! It wound up being 7:24 pace, which is probably a little faster than was necessary but not too bad. The funniest thing was, I ended up winning the 5 mile race for the women [out of probably...3 or 4] and technically I suppose I set a new PR since I've never run a 5 mile race before! How often do you get to do all that on a random tempo workout? I really enjoyed the old-school, low key feel of the races, and since they have them EVERY Saturday I can definitely see myself using them for workouts in the future. Plus, the added challenge of dodging/hurdling off-leash dogs adds some extra entertainment to the workout. :)
So then yesterday was my lovely long run. I had 18 on the schedule but in true HurdlingHam fashion, I managed to accidentally-on-purpose miscalculate my route and ended up running 20.5. From the start, my legs just felt crappy, and when I feel crappy I generally need familiar territory to mentally get me through the run. So I scrapped my meticulously planned 18 mile route and wound up running laps around Chestnut Hill Reservoir for...a long time. Like almost 2 hours. Try as I might I just never found that groove through the first 15 miles of the run. I spent a lot of time doing math in my head, trying to figure out how many laps I needed to do to get to the distance that, with adding on the ~6 mile loop I was going to do after, would add up to 18. Obviously my math skills while in the midst of a long run are kind of sketchy because not only did I underestimate the distance I had to run after, buuuut I also added on an extra 1.5 mile loop around the reservoir. Whoops. By the time I got off the loop, I was feeling pretty awful. I bought a Gatorade and drank/ran for the next couple of miles - seriously, miraculous. All of a sudden it was like I could FEEL the sugar and hydration hitting my muscles, and my legs suddenly didn't feel so crappy. Then the song "Shots" came on my ipod, and I was just inspired haha. The last 5 miles or so I wound up picking it up to just under 8 minute pace, and my legs felt STRONG - I was thrilled! So, it was a good long run. I have to say I was pretty pumped to see that 20. I felt pretty bad for about an hour after the run, but with the help of recovery socks + red hook winter ale + Bluestone pizza [the BEST PIZZA EVER!!] I was feeling much better by the time I went to bed.
OK, boring workout recaps OVER! Annnnd now I can't even remember what else I was going to say haha. I can't believe there are only 8 WEEKS UNTIL BOSTON!!! That is crazy, terrifying, awesome, exciting...all of the above.
Showing posts with label fartlek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fartlek. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 06, 2010
That was a crazy fartlek workout....& pre-race jitters!
That was a crazy fartlek workout
My legs were fried
But someday I'll be back again
Even though I kind of wanted to die...
[To the tune of OAR's Crazy Game of Poker hehe]
Haha ok, I hope you enjoyed my awesome song. The crazy fartlek workout I'm talking about is 10 miles, with 30 seconds at around 5K pace every 3 minutes. I spent a lot of time going back and forth on the workout over whether it was going to be hard, or not so bad, or just long, or what. I was planning on doing it on my way to work [such a huge time saver] and leaving around 3:15. Then I get this phone call around 2:
Co-worker: "Hi, can you come in a little early? My knees are killing me, I think I'm going to go to the doctor"
Me: "Ummm...sure...how early?"
Co-worker: "Well, whenever you can get here would be good"
Me: "OK...um...well...I need to run 10 miles today, and I was planning on doing it on my way to work...so I can leave in a few minutes, instead of when I would usually leave, and I think I'll get there around 4?" [my normal shift started at 5]
Co-worker: "You are insane. Do you know how cold it is outside?"
Me: "Yeah...."
Co-worker: "Wow. OK yeah, just get here whenever you can"
Clearly, we know where my priorities lie...:) Because I didn't want to look at my watch every 3 minutes [talk about making a workout go by sloooooow], I made a playlist of ~3 minute songs, and then just did the 30 second interval at the start of each song. It was actually really nice, and I grabbed some music I hadn't listened to in awhile which made things extra fun. At the start I felt OK - the 5K pace stuff felt kind of hard, and the easy parts felt really easy. Strangely, the further I got into the run, the more I enjoyed the 30 second bursts and the more unpleasant the 2:30 in between them became - weird, right? So it was definitely by no means an easy workout, and it didn't help that I ran it on a pretty hilly route. But honestly, I really liked it! Having to speed up every 3 minutes really kept me focused and involved in the run, as opposed to just kind of cruising, and it really kept things interesting. Was it hard? YES - 10 miles is no joke, especially when you add speedwork into it for the entire distance, and by the end my quads were begging for mercy. But overall I felt really strong, and ended up with a 7:33 pace overall, which I'm pretty sure is the fastest pace I've ever logged over 10 miles...so that was pretty cool, and I guess means I didn't slow down to a snail's pace on the recovery/easy parts, which is good! So thanks Brad Hudson, for yet another interesting workout that I never would have come up with on my own, but ended up enjoying!
Some favorite tracks from yesterday's workout mix:
To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts - Matt Nathanson
I LOVE Matt Nathanson, and this was a song that somehow got lost in my mess of an iTunes library...I adore it and find it to be a perfect running anthem.
Stand Out - Powerline
Uh...it's from A Goofy Movie. Pretty much enough said. LOL.
Night - Bruce Springsteen
I was taught to love The Boss at a young age because my dad is a HUGE fan...there were a lot of bands that he tried to get me to like/appreciate as a kid, and Bruce was one of the couple that actually stuck. [The Who being another] But Bruce Springsteen...damn. I got to see him in concert a couple years ago and it was just straight up incredible..I can only imagine what the man was like in his younger days. Born To Run is probably one of my favorite albums of all time, and this was a song I didn't really appreciate until recently. But I love it now!
Well, other than that, the Super Sunday 10K is tomorrow and I'm actually getting quite nervous. I haven't race in what feels like FOREVER...usually by this point in the school year, I would have 10-15 races under my belt and a road race would be just a diversion between track meets. But now road races ARE my track meets, and I really would like to actually throw down a good time tomorrow. Based on my 5K track PR, the McMillan calculator predicts me at a 41:20 10K...annnd also a 3:14 marathon, HAH! Putting in my marathon time gives me a 46:43, which wouldn't even be a PR, so I would NOT be satisfied with that, especially given how I've been running lately. Putting in the 6:10 mile I ran in a workout gives me 44:23 - and also matches up with the 5K time I would imagine I could run right now [21:22]. Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Obviously my #1 MO is to simply PR - that is, beat 46:30. I think I'll cry if I can't do that. But I think I will put my 'A' goal as being 44:30. Probably unrealistic, but hey, you never know until you try, right?
I'm also geeking out about what I'm going to wear!! I really don't want to race in one of my bulkier winter running tops, but I also don't want to freeze my ass off. I think I'm going to test out my lightest possible race outfit on my run today, and if it checks out I'll go with it for tomorrow. I am nervous though - I really want to run well, I feel like I have something to prove to myself that I haven't lost my racing edge, that I can still compete, and that I can push through the pain and run a good race. Guess we'll find out at 10 am tomorrow...at least the Harpoon beer and Legal clam chowder at the end will hopefully drive me to a faster finish time. :)
My legs were fried
But someday I'll be back again
Even though I kind of wanted to die...
[To the tune of OAR's Crazy Game of Poker hehe]
Haha ok, I hope you enjoyed my awesome song. The crazy fartlek workout I'm talking about is 10 miles, with 30 seconds at around 5K pace every 3 minutes. I spent a lot of time going back and forth on the workout over whether it was going to be hard, or not so bad, or just long, or what. I was planning on doing it on my way to work [such a huge time saver] and leaving around 3:15. Then I get this phone call around 2:
Co-worker: "Hi, can you come in a little early? My knees are killing me, I think I'm going to go to the doctor"
Me: "Ummm...sure...how early?"
Co-worker: "Well, whenever you can get here would be good"
Me: "OK...um...well...I need to run 10 miles today, and I was planning on doing it on my way to work...so I can leave in a few minutes, instead of when I would usually leave, and I think I'll get there around 4?" [my normal shift started at 5]
Co-worker: "You are insane. Do you know how cold it is outside?"
Me: "Yeah...."
Co-worker: "Wow. OK yeah, just get here whenever you can"
Clearly, we know where my priorities lie...:) Because I didn't want to look at my watch every 3 minutes [talk about making a workout go by sloooooow], I made a playlist of ~3 minute songs, and then just did the 30 second interval at the start of each song. It was actually really nice, and I grabbed some music I hadn't listened to in awhile which made things extra fun. At the start I felt OK - the 5K pace stuff felt kind of hard, and the easy parts felt really easy. Strangely, the further I got into the run, the more I enjoyed the 30 second bursts and the more unpleasant the 2:30 in between them became - weird, right? So it was definitely by no means an easy workout, and it didn't help that I ran it on a pretty hilly route. But honestly, I really liked it! Having to speed up every 3 minutes really kept me focused and involved in the run, as opposed to just kind of cruising, and it really kept things interesting. Was it hard? YES - 10 miles is no joke, especially when you add speedwork into it for the entire distance, and by the end my quads were begging for mercy. But overall I felt really strong, and ended up with a 7:33 pace overall, which I'm pretty sure is the fastest pace I've ever logged over 10 miles...so that was pretty cool, and I guess means I didn't slow down to a snail's pace on the recovery/easy parts, which is good! So thanks Brad Hudson, for yet another interesting workout that I never would have come up with on my own, but ended up enjoying!
Some favorite tracks from yesterday's workout mix:
To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts - Matt Nathanson
I LOVE Matt Nathanson, and this was a song that somehow got lost in my mess of an iTunes library...I adore it and find it to be a perfect running anthem.
Stand Out - Powerline
Uh...it's from A Goofy Movie. Pretty much enough said. LOL.
Night - Bruce Springsteen
I was taught to love The Boss at a young age because my dad is a HUGE fan...there were a lot of bands that he tried to get me to like/appreciate as a kid, and Bruce was one of the couple that actually stuck. [The Who being another] But Bruce Springsteen...damn. I got to see him in concert a couple years ago and it was just straight up incredible..I can only imagine what the man was like in his younger days. Born To Run is probably one of my favorite albums of all time, and this was a song I didn't really appreciate until recently. But I love it now!
Well, other than that, the Super Sunday 10K is tomorrow and I'm actually getting quite nervous. I haven't race in what feels like FOREVER...usually by this point in the school year, I would have 10-15 races under my belt and a road race would be just a diversion between track meets. But now road races ARE my track meets, and I really would like to actually throw down a good time tomorrow. Based on my 5K track PR, the McMillan calculator predicts me at a 41:20 10K...annnd also a 3:14 marathon, HAH! Putting in my marathon time gives me a 46:43, which wouldn't even be a PR, so I would NOT be satisfied with that, especially given how I've been running lately. Putting in the 6:10 mile I ran in a workout gives me 44:23 - and also matches up with the 5K time I would imagine I could run right now [21:22]. Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Obviously my #1 MO is to simply PR - that is, beat 46:30. I think I'll cry if I can't do that. But I think I will put my 'A' goal as being 44:30. Probably unrealistic, but hey, you never know until you try, right?
I'm also geeking out about what I'm going to wear!! I really don't want to race in one of my bulkier winter running tops, but I also don't want to freeze my ass off. I think I'm going to test out my lightest possible race outfit on my run today, and if it checks out I'll go with it for tomorrow. I am nervous though - I really want to run well, I feel like I have something to prove to myself that I haven't lost my racing edge, that I can still compete, and that I can push through the pain and run a good race. Guess we'll find out at 10 am tomorrow...at least the Harpoon beer and Legal clam chowder at the end will hopefully drive me to a faster finish time. :)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Boston Training Week 1 Recap
Runs: 5
"Workouts": 1
Longest run: 12.6 miles
XT: 2000 yds swimming, 2 x 1 hour yoga
Total running miles: 39.4
A pretty solid week to start off my Boston training cycle, especially considering the fact that my highest mileage over the previous 3 weeks was 19.1 miles [only raise your miles by like 10% each week? Yeaahh...I don't really agree with that philosophy I guess]. The big news was, even with an almost 40 mile week I had almost ZERO knee issues...SUCCESS!! I felt a couple of twinges in the first 10 minutes of my long run, but I'm pretty sure that had something to do with it being really cold and my not stretching before heading out [naughty naughty, I know]. I'm loosely following Brad Hudson's level 2 marathon plan from "Run Faster" - basically I'm trying to incorporate the workouts that he suggests into my schedule, but adjusting the easy runs and some long runs so that I don't kill myself or my knee. I was kind of nervous going into my long run since...uh...I kind of haven't run double digits since the marathon? And that was in October? 12 miles sounded kiiinda scary, and then it was cold out, and then I was procrastinating because obviously, what would a long run be without me having to psych myself up for it for 4 hours? It was somewhat productive procrastination though, because I did start up a new long run playlist...and for me, there's no better motivation than good, new music! Some highlights from the new mix:
Time To Pretend - MGMT
This Year - The Mountain Goats
Props to my former RA Alex for both of these songs, which I discovered via his "Song Of The Week" feature on his blog, Chasing Something, which is pretty sweet. I'm pretty obsessed with them both and the chorus of "This Year" - "I'm gonna make it through this year if it kills me" rings pretty true right now because a) it's a new year, duh...and b) it's a new training cycle, and I'm gonna make it through it.
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
I tried soooo hard not to like this song [I think because the music video and Lady Gaga in general kind of terrify me?]...but ahhh it's so addictive!
Inch - Charlotte Martin
I couldn't find the video for this but anyway...I LOVE Charlotte Martin and this is one of my favorite songs of hers, kind of forgot about it until now. It's good for running up a hill..."am I an inch away from heaven? Just a little higher now..."
King of Pain - The Police
This is my current running song obsession! I found it by aimlessly hunting through people's running iMixes in the iTunes store and yeah...I'm kind of in love. Is it the beat and crazy xylophone thing going on in the background? Is it the lyrics? I have no idea but it's been in my head like...nonstop.
OK so enough musical business - I'll keep you all updated on my new running jams though. I'm planning on adding 2-3 new songs to the mix every week, ya know, keep things fresh and exciting! I know there are some people out there who aren't big advocates of listening to music while running, but whatever...I am not a purist, and if listening to music motivates me to get my butt out the door/to keep running hard when I don't want to? That sure works for me! Anyway, the new running mix must have helped because my long run was a success! Ohhh man I was relieved. I tried sort of a random new route which turned out to be the best idea EVER because I started having some stomach troubles around mile 5 and was sort of concerned about the lack of public bathrooms [no way was I running off into the snow - way too obvious to traffic! haha]..and then a long run MIRACLE! I ran past the Chestnut Hill mall...now there are pretty much no public bathrooms anywhere in this city, but at a mall it's pretty much a guarantee...so thanks for being there, mall, and saving my ass, literally. :) The rest of the run was pretty uneventful except I almost added an extra mile and a half on by running around the reservoir again...that would have been such a fail! I was thinking "wow, my legs are really tired, do I seriously have like 3 miles to go? That doesn't really make sense...I've been going for 1:20, I hope it's not going to take that long for me to run 12 miles? Oh wait, I'm actually just an idiot...it all makes sense now"
So I feel much better about my training life now that a) I made it through a ~40 mile week with no knee issues and b) I made it through my somewhat ambitious long run without dying. The rest of this training cycle should be no problem, riiiight? I'm probably going to eliminate one of my 2 XT days sooner rather than later, and maybe do some kind of 3-4 mile recovery run + yoga day instead.
Apparently my body decided that it was cranky at me for running outside for so long on such a cold day, because on Monday I felt like I was coming down with something and Tuesday was hit with a full-on cold - FAIL! I really wanted to do my planned 5 miler, but ended up napping for 4 hours after I got home from work, then definitely feeling like it was a bad idea when I woke up. So my second XT/off day for the week is now used up - luckily I seem to be on the road to recovery as I did a pretty sweet 8 mile workout with 4 miles of fartlek on the treadmill today that went way better than I expected! I have a confession to make: I'm warming up to the treadmill for some speed workouts..ahhh I never thought I'd see the day. But since I don't have a Garmin or any other fancy device that will actually tell me my pace, and I'm not a great judge of effort, for things that say "run HM pace" or "10K pace", it's really nice to know that I am indeed running that pace. Also the treadmill isn't covered with ice or packed snow...which is, you know, kind of nice when you're trying to do a speed workout and not die haha.
Hmm...well in non-running related news, nothing too exciting is going on in my life haha...does anyone who reads this watch LOST? I remember when I knew a bunch of people who watched it and I was like..meh...that totally doesn't seem like the kind of show I would ever watch or get into. Well, the BF started watching it online, starting from the beginning, a couple of months ago and once again I was like "OK cool, now you have a show to watch that I don't want to watch, so I can do other stuff while you watch it". But somehow...I don't know how...I got sucked into watching starting from season 1...and WOW I am hooked. It's like mind-blowing and ridiculous but completely awesome. I'm almost done with season 5, just in time for season 6 to start February 2! Since apparently all the other shows I watch decided to go on break until March, or maybe the end of time, it's going to be nice to have an actual show to watch on my fail-cable again. :)
Is it really Friday tomorrow? This week went by fast! Have a good one, hopefully I'll be back with more entertaining [and by entertaining I hopefully mean AWESOME] long run stories this weekend. :)
"Workouts": 1
Longest run: 12.6 miles
XT: 2000 yds swimming, 2 x 1 hour yoga
Total running miles: 39.4
A pretty solid week to start off my Boston training cycle, especially considering the fact that my highest mileage over the previous 3 weeks was 19.1 miles [only raise your miles by like 10% each week? Yeaahh...I don't really agree with that philosophy I guess]. The big news was, even with an almost 40 mile week I had almost ZERO knee issues...SUCCESS!! I felt a couple of twinges in the first 10 minutes of my long run, but I'm pretty sure that had something to do with it being really cold and my not stretching before heading out [naughty naughty, I know]. I'm loosely following Brad Hudson's level 2 marathon plan from "Run Faster" - basically I'm trying to incorporate the workouts that he suggests into my schedule, but adjusting the easy runs and some long runs so that I don't kill myself or my knee. I was kind of nervous going into my long run since...uh...I kind of haven't run double digits since the marathon? And that was in October? 12 miles sounded kiiinda scary, and then it was cold out, and then I was procrastinating because obviously, what would a long run be without me having to psych myself up for it for 4 hours? It was somewhat productive procrastination though, because I did start up a new long run playlist...and for me, there's no better motivation than good, new music! Some highlights from the new mix:
Time To Pretend - MGMT
This Year - The Mountain Goats
Props to my former RA Alex for both of these songs, which I discovered via his "Song Of The Week" feature on his blog, Chasing Something, which is pretty sweet. I'm pretty obsessed with them both and the chorus of "This Year" - "I'm gonna make it through this year if it kills me" rings pretty true right now because a) it's a new year, duh...and b) it's a new training cycle, and I'm gonna make it through it.
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
I tried soooo hard not to like this song [I think because the music video and Lady Gaga in general kind of terrify me?]...but ahhh it's so addictive!
Inch - Charlotte Martin
I couldn't find the video for this but anyway...I LOVE Charlotte Martin and this is one of my favorite songs of hers, kind of forgot about it until now. It's good for running up a hill..."am I an inch away from heaven? Just a little higher now..."
King of Pain - The Police
This is my current running song obsession! I found it by aimlessly hunting through people's running iMixes in the iTunes store and yeah...I'm kind of in love. Is it the beat and crazy xylophone thing going on in the background? Is it the lyrics? I have no idea but it's been in my head like...nonstop.
OK so enough musical business - I'll keep you all updated on my new running jams though. I'm planning on adding 2-3 new songs to the mix every week, ya know, keep things fresh and exciting! I know there are some people out there who aren't big advocates of listening to music while running, but whatever...I am not a purist, and if listening to music motivates me to get my butt out the door/to keep running hard when I don't want to? That sure works for me! Anyway, the new running mix must have helped because my long run was a success! Ohhh man I was relieved. I tried sort of a random new route which turned out to be the best idea EVER because I started having some stomach troubles around mile 5 and was sort of concerned about the lack of public bathrooms [no way was I running off into the snow - way too obvious to traffic! haha]..and then a long run MIRACLE! I ran past the Chestnut Hill mall...now there are pretty much no public bathrooms anywhere in this city, but at a mall it's pretty much a guarantee...so thanks for being there, mall, and saving my ass, literally. :) The rest of the run was pretty uneventful except I almost added an extra mile and a half on by running around the reservoir again...that would have been such a fail! I was thinking "wow, my legs are really tired, do I seriously have like 3 miles to go? That doesn't really make sense...I've been going for 1:20, I hope it's not going to take that long for me to run 12 miles? Oh wait, I'm actually just an idiot...it all makes sense now"
So I feel much better about my training life now that a) I made it through a ~40 mile week with no knee issues and b) I made it through my somewhat ambitious long run without dying. The rest of this training cycle should be no problem, riiiight? I'm probably going to eliminate one of my 2 XT days sooner rather than later, and maybe do some kind of 3-4 mile recovery run + yoga day instead.
Apparently my body decided that it was cranky at me for running outside for so long on such a cold day, because on Monday I felt like I was coming down with something and Tuesday was hit with a full-on cold - FAIL! I really wanted to do my planned 5 miler, but ended up napping for 4 hours after I got home from work, then definitely feeling like it was a bad idea when I woke up. So my second XT/off day for the week is now used up - luckily I seem to be on the road to recovery as I did a pretty sweet 8 mile workout with 4 miles of fartlek on the treadmill today that went way better than I expected! I have a confession to make: I'm warming up to the treadmill for some speed workouts..ahhh I never thought I'd see the day. But since I don't have a Garmin or any other fancy device that will actually tell me my pace, and I'm not a great judge of effort, for things that say "run HM pace" or "10K pace", it's really nice to know that I am indeed running that pace. Also the treadmill isn't covered with ice or packed snow...which is, you know, kind of nice when you're trying to do a speed workout and not die haha.
Hmm...well in non-running related news, nothing too exciting is going on in my life haha...does anyone who reads this watch LOST? I remember when I knew a bunch of people who watched it and I was like..meh...that totally doesn't seem like the kind of show I would ever watch or get into. Well, the BF started watching it online, starting from the beginning, a couple of months ago and once again I was like "OK cool, now you have a show to watch that I don't want to watch, so I can do other stuff while you watch it". But somehow...I don't know how...I got sucked into watching starting from season 1...and WOW I am hooked. It's like mind-blowing and ridiculous but completely awesome. I'm almost done with season 5, just in time for season 6 to start February 2! Since apparently all the other shows I watch decided to go on break until March, or maybe the end of time, it's going to be nice to have an actual show to watch on my fail-cable again. :)
Is it really Friday tomorrow? This week went by fast! Have a good one, hopefully I'll be back with more entertaining [and by entertaining I hopefully mean AWESOME] long run stories this weekend. :)
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