3 mile tempo run.

Well I guess I stupidly assumed that after my "spring" marathon, I would come home and start my "summer" training season, leaving the dreadmill behind, at least for a few months...

This morning when I woke up and heard the rain pounding on the roof, I actually considered for a moment going out to do my 3 mile run...what's a little rain, right?  Then I got realistic when I went out on the porch and saw the down pour and headed for the treadmill.  My schedule had me doing a 3 mile tempo run, so in a way I suppose it should have been an easy thing to do - just set the treadmill for my desired pace and run for 3 miles - simple.  Sort of.  I honestly have not honed the treadmill vs. road running pace thing.  I know I can run 3 miles on the road in under 30 minutes, and my goal had I been running outside today was to run it in under 28 minutes, which I know I could have done, possibly even faster.  The problem with running on the treadmill is that I feel like I have to work so much harder, that the faster I go, the more out of control of my body I feel.  I did my 3 mile tempo run at a 5.5 mph pace, and at the end I was literally dripping with sweat and felt like I was going to vomit.  I did a little walking at the end as a cool down, so I spent a total of 3.6 miles and 48 minutes on the treadmill.  After my run, I did 30 minutes of Pilates floor work.  Now I don't run again until my scheduled 10 miler on Saturday, and I'm telling you it had better be warm and sunny or I am seriously going to start researching jobs and real estate in southern California!

Cross-training day.

Today I still have a little bit of a headache, but it's better than yesterday thankfully.  I think it's partly due to hormones, but also some stress I've been feeling over trying to plan a trip that we're taking in about a week and a half.  The financial and logistical aspects are weighing me down, and I've been trying to overcome these feelings through my workouts and by eating healthy foods.  Gradually it has been helping.  Today for my cross-training workout I started with level 1 of 30 Day Shred, then I did 40 minutes on the elliptical, so not much new on that front.  My husband and I do have plans to work out in the yard and garden today as well, which I also like to think of as cross-training. :)

3 miles of speed work.

Well, the headache I had all day yesterday was still lingering when I got out of bed early this morning, as was the rain and cool temperatures.  But, I still managed to head over to the high school track to do my workout.  Unfortunately, when I got there the gate was chained and I couldn't get in to use the track.  I guess since school's out, I might have to figure out an alternative.  In the meantime, for today's run I just came home and used the treadmill to do my 3 X 1600 repeats.  I warmed up for a few minutes with some walking, followed by a slow jog, then increased the speed and ran at a faster pace for 1 mile, then slowing to a jog for about 4 minutes, then repeat.  When I finished I had actually gone a little over 3 1/2 miles, including the recovery portions.  After my run, I did level 1 of JM's Yoga Meltdown.  My headache feels a little better now, but I am tempted to go back to bed.  I guess I'll finish my chocolate-banana-peanut butter smoothie and go take a shower instead. :)

Cross-training Monday.

For my workout this morning I started out with level 1 of 30 Day Shred.  After that I did 45 minutes on the elliptical.  My legs are still sore from Saturday's long run, but this week is an "easy" week, with 3 miles worth of speed work tomorrow, 3 mile tempo run on Thursday and a 10 mile long run on Saturday.

12.65 miles.

I got an early start on this morning's long run, heading out the door at 6:15 after a brief warm up.  I had dressed in a new running outfit - a pink singlet and a black running skirt - anticipating a warm run since it's sunny and predicted highs are supposed to reach mid 70's.  Unfortunately at that early in the morning there wasn't much warmth, even when the sun came up over the mountains, and I was cold the entire run.  It's even worse when you start to sweat but you still feel cold.  At any rate, I completed my run, taking a few walking breaks during the last 4-5 miles.  I felt really good during the first 7-8 miles, as is typical for me, but I hit a wall after that and really had to push myself to finish.  I had to remind myself that I'm only 2 weeks out from the marathon and my muscles are still recovering.  Now I'm going to enjoy the rest of this sunny Saturday knowing I don't run again until Tuesday. :)

7 mile tempo run.

I meant to get up early this morning to do my run, but my body didn't want to cooperate and I slept in until about 7.  I did a brief warm-up before heading out for my 7 mile tempo run.  According to the book, on this run the goal was to maintain a consistent pace at about 20 seconds slower than my 10K pace.  The problem I'm having with this plan is that all the runs are based on gauging all of my paces according to my 10K pace and I don't really know what that is.  I've just gone through all of my Garmin downloads for the past year and looked at what pace most of my 6-7 mile runs were.  I'm more interested in what pace I would like to be doing, and kind of going from there.  At any rate, for today's run, I set my Garmin to alert me if I was going slower than 11 min/mile so I would know to speed up a little bit.  There were a couple of times that my alarm went off; man, it is hard to keep a consistent pace when running out on the road, taking into account all the hills, etc.  There were also a few times I looked at my pace on my watch and I was going under 10 min/mile.  When I downloaded my run info from my Garmin when I got home, it showed that I had an average pace of 10:37 min/mile, finishing a little over 7 miles in just under 74 minutes.  I guess that works.  I felt like I was pushing myself more than I usually do, and I guess that's the point of these tempo runs.  I did a few minutes of stretching after my run, but again today I hope to get in some Pilates a little later.

Cross-training.

I can totally tell that I did a speed workout yesterday because my body is sore in all kinds of places.  Luckily, today is not a run day.  I started my cross-training workout with level 2 of 30 Day Shred, then I did 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by a 15 minute walk on the treadmill to cool down.

Speed workout 1.

This morning I woke up, did a few dynamic stretches then two of my boys and I drove into town to run at the high school track.  It was about 45 degrees and the wind was howling.  While the boys each worked on doing a mile with a warm up and cool down, I did 3.25 miles worth of 800m repeats.  The cold and the wind actually helped motivate me to run faster because I was really in a hurry to get back in the car!  After I got done, we drove home and I did 40 minutes of Pilates/Yoga Crunch.

New schedule!

I've decided on a training method and schedule for my next marathon.  Back when I first started running last year, a friend of mine loaned me a book called "Run Less, Run Faster".  I read it then, but I was already into a training plan and decided not to do the one profiled in the book.  I've decided to try it this time around.  I've ordered my own copy of the book and should be getting it in the mail this week, but I was able to get the actual training schedule online.  The meat of this particular method is this: only three runs a week - a speed work run, a tempo run and a long run, then two strong cross-training sessions of 45-60 min. per week.  The theory is that with only three runs and a day of non-running in between each, your body will be rested enough for you to push harder on those three running days.  The speed work runs are between 2.5 and 4.5 miles worth of 400, 800, 1200 and 1600 meter repeats, the tempo runs range from 3-10 miles each to be run at 15-30 sec/mile slower than your 10K pace, and the long runs go from 10 - 20 miles to be run at 60 to 75 seconds slower than your 10K pace.  There are two 20 mile long runs on the schedule, but on my schedule I made the second one a 22 miler.

This program is a 16 week training schedule, but since I only have 14 weeks until my next marathon, I am just going to start on week 3 - TODAY!  So, this morning was slotted as a cross-training day and I started out by doing level 1 of 30 Day Shred, followed by 30 minutes on the elliptical and another 15 minutes of speed walking on the treadmill.  I also plan to do some Yoga or Pilates at some point today, but with the kids out of school now I have to rearrange my workout schedule a little bit.

Tomorrow I will do my first speed workout.  I am feeling good, no pain, strong...let's just hope and pray my body continues on this path and that there is no recurrence of my previous problems.  I'm also hoping that at some point soon, Mother Nature will actually figure out that it's supposed to be summer now!  We've had snow, rain, wind, cold temperatures for what feels like months now.  I am SO ready for some consistently sunny and warm days.

Time with the kids.

My kids are getting geared up for some fun hikes we have planned this summer.  One of the hikes is an 8 mile trail hike up to a mountain lake, which is in about three weeks.  So in preparation for all the activity, they are doing some extra walking/jogging/running according to a schedule that I printed out for them.  This morning my 8 year old daughter and my 11 year old son and I walked to the park (1/2 mile), jogged/walked a little over a mile, then walked home.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but right now I just want to start getting them into the routine of doing some kind of scheduled exercise each morning now that they are on their summer break.  When we came home, I did 30 Day Shred.  I haven't done that one in a while...I think I should probably try and do it 3 or 4 times a week because it's such a great workout that only takes 20 minutes!