Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Run 2014: Week 13



Tuesday, June 3rd: 12 x 400m, 2:00min per 400m
     This was my first experience with track repeats and speed training and it wasn't that bad. There's a local collage about 2 miles from our house that has an open 400 meter track so we headed over there.  I did pretty well hitting my times. It was always somewhere around 2:00 to 2:05 minutes per 400 meters. I was pleased with my progress and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We'll see how the next weeks go. I'm assuming that it'll get harder as we go along.

Thursday, June 5th: 6.07miles in 58:54, average pace 9:42
     And this run sucked ass. Big time. It was supposed to be 2 miles of warm up, 3 miles at 8:58, and one mile of cool down. That is definitely not what happened. Instead it was 6 miles of me sucking wind and trying not to vomit. I'm really not sure what happened. I thought I started slow enough but miles one and two were a 9:44 and a 9:38 respectively. After that I just couldn't seem to rally. My first mile at tempo was a little slow at 9:01 but the other two were 9:30 and 9:38. I just could not manage to speed up without having to stop and walk to get my stomach to settle down.

Saturday, June 7th: 8.01 miles in 1:18:46, average pace 9:50
     And then this run was perfection. I was due to run 8 miles at a 9:53 pace and I killed it. I went into it frustrated about Thursday's run and convinced that there was no way that I could hit that pace consistently. So I just decided to screw the time and just run what felt good. And I nailed it. Sure my times weren't spot on every time but it average out to be right and I'm going with it.

Overall thoughts:
     For a first week of a new program this went pretty well. It's very different having time goals and distances to hit. And I definitely need to spend some time getting used to it. It takes a lot more brain power than just going out and running whatever feels good (although that's what I did on Saturday and it worked out okay). One challenge is that I don't have a good way to track my pace while I'm running. My phone's gps does not track that specifically and I'm not willing to spend the money on a garmin. So I doubt I'll ever get it dialed in perfectly but I'm sure I'll get close enough.

For me the hardest part of this running program is that Justin and I are training for different times now and that means that we aren't running any of our runs together. That is quite the change for me. We've always run all our runs together and now we're adjusting to solo runs. So far they've been fine. The three that I did this week weren't too bad and I didn't get bored. Seriously though, this is a very good thing for Justin. Because we've always run together that means we've always run my slower pace. And I'm much, much slower than Justin is capable of. So now he gets to push himself and see what he can do and it's going to be really fun!

In other news, I have no developed any new aches or pains and my ankle has been quite well behaved lately. It was pretty much fine during every run. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that I have finally figured out how to manage it. As long as I stretch the ankle extensively after a run that seems to keep it happy the rest of the time. That's definitely doable and much easier than daily stretches and exercises.

So yeah. A good week of running was had by all. After we've gotten a bit more settled into our current training plan/running routine I'll write an update on what plan we're using and how we like it so far. But at this point, one week isn't near enough time to form an opinion!


Fort4Fitness: 19 weeks
Huff: 31 weeks


Monday, June 2, 2014

Run 2014: Week 12



Tuesday, May 27th: 4.93 miles in 52:54, average pace 10:44
     This was a fun run for a couple of reasons; one is that we just headed out to have a good time and the other is that I've always wanted to run the National Mall! We actually took the metro into town from our hotel room just to run the five miles. We certainly would have been easier to leave from our hotel and just run and come back. But this seemed more sporting.

Love all the dips from where we waited to cross streets.

There were tons of people out running like there always are around there. People in DC are crazy though. I only saw a couple of people, both men and women, who were running without a shirt on. Seriously people, it was at least 70 and humid every single morning by 8am. My general rule is that if it's sunny and warmer than 60 then I refuse to wear a shirt. So to be running at noon in 84F sunny weather is just nuts to me. Ranting aside, the run was alright. It was hot and humid so I was definitely ready to be done. But it was fun and novel and it goes the miles done.

Thursday, May 29th: 14.20 miles in 1:25:00ish, average pace 6:00
     Yay! I was flying!! Okay fine, I'm cheating. This was a bike ride not a run. We rode our bikes into downtown to a modern dance performance and skipped our run. Once every summer our local ballet puts on a outdoor, free, modern dance performance and we always go! This time is happened on our usual run night. We could have fit a short run in and still made it. But it was much more fun to have a leisurely night and enjoy ourselves for once. Besides we figured that we walked to much in DC our legs wouldn't mind a break. Tell you the truth though, that bike ride was a lot harder than the run would have been ;-)

Saturday, May 31st: 9.91 miles in 1:43:42, average pace 10:28
     This was a crappy run in that I did NOT want to be doing that. I'm not sure what happened this morning. I woke up feeling alright and in a decent mood but I just really did not want to go for a run. But I went anyway and was grumpy for almost 10 miles. I was pissy with Justin when he asked if there was anything he could do to make my run better and by the time I turned onto my street I was crying because I just wanted. to. be. home. I did not want to pass go; I did not want to collect $200.

I have no idea what my problem was. I was just being stupid. Because the run went fine. Actually it went better than fine; it went quite well. It wasn't particularly hot or humid. We carried our little hand helds and refilled them around mile six. My ankle only started aching in the 7th mile and was super mild. I only noticed it when I particularly paid attention to it. Really, as far as long building runs went it was a good one. I was just a bitch the whole time. Sorry, Justin!*

Overall thoughts:
   This week wasn't bad. We finished up our training plan in week 11 so we were kind of on our own this week. We ended up deciding to build mileage for an additional week which seemed to go fine. Neither of our runs were particularly difficult and my ankle has been very well behaved for the past couple of weeks. So nothing crazy to report.

We're planning on starting a different kind of running program in week 13 and it has some speed work and timed tempo runs. It'll be a very interesting experience. I've never done something like that so it'll be a novel experience for me. I'm rather looking forward to the change of pace (pun intended). So be on the look for that next week.

The other element of this new program is that you're supposed to include additional cross training. We're not particularly good at cross training at the moment. We do enjoy bike riding and swimming. It's just that we tend to prefer to stay home and relax or work on projects on our week nights off. So we'll see how we do adding that in. It'll be exciting!


Fort4Fitness: 20 weeks
Huff: 32 weeks


*In my defense, I was PMSing. Although that's not a valid excuse for bad behaviour.