5.25 miles of speedwork.

Normally, according to my schedule today would be a cross-training day, but this week I have to switch my running days because on Saturday we are leaving for a week long trip and I'm going to be doing my long run of Friday morning instead of Saturday morning.  So that means today became my speed work out day.  After doing 20 minutes of Pilates to warm up my muscles, my husband and I geared up and headed into town to do our runs at the track.  We found a middle school with an open track, it's a little bit further away from our house (about a 12 minute drive), but not too big of a deal.  I really like doing the speed workouts on a track.  It's so nice to just start my Garmin at the beginning and then forget about it and just do my thing, using the track itself to gauge my distance for running and resting intervals.  I started out with one lap (400 meters, or 1/4 mile) of walking for a warm up, then I did 10 X 400 meters, with 400m rest intervals.  In other words, I'd run 1 lap at a faster than normal pace, then walk/jog one lap to recover, then repeat 10 times, for a total distance covered of 5.25 miles.  When I got home and downloaded my Garmin info, I was excited to see that for each of my speed intervals, my pace was right around 7 min/mile for the whole 1/4 mile.  Unfortunately, my foot started to hurt again after just a few minutes of running.  It's very annoying.

10 mile long run.

To my shock and amazement the weather actually cooperated with my plans for a run this morning, yippee!  I woke up around 6:30 and was on the road by 6:45.  It was all in all an uneventful run.  I ran the whole thing, minus about 1/4 mile of walking up a huge hill around mile 7, finishing the 10 miles in 1 hour and 50 minutes.  Not breaking any speed records here, but feeling pretty good.

I have had a new "problem" with one of my feet.  A few weeks ago I noticed a bulging lump on the top of my ankle, right around where the top of the tongue of the shoe hits.  It doesn't hurt to touch it, but I've been watching it and it has gotten a little bigger.  Last night my foot was bothering me, not super painful, but annoying, with the pain starting in the area of the lump and going down the top of my foot to my big toe.  Today was the first time on a run it started to hurt and made running a little harder, but I'm icing it now.  I'm thinking along the lines of a ganglion cyst or something like that, but if it keeps bugging me, I may have to go to a doctor and have it checked...ugh.  I hate doctors.

Rest, yeah right!

This morning is a "rest" day, but I did level 2 of 30 Day Shred just to get my heart pumping a little. ;)  And, of course, the sun is shining and it seems it's going to be a beautiful day.  Since it's a non-running day for me, after cub scouts and grocery shopping, I'm hoping to get the kids outside and to the park for a little exercise.

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.