Filed under: Dealing, Speedwork, The Race | Tags: marathon, off day, running, Speedwork, struggle, Tempo, treadmill
I’ve been doing my intervals on the treadmill. It’s simply easier to keep track of my pace and distance, despite the tedium. Today was a difficult day: three 1600 meter intervals at 9:22 pace with 90 seconds of fast walking in between. In fact, this workout shouldn’t have been much different than last week’s workout.
I don’t know why it’s so much harder for me to run on a treadmill, but by the third 1600, I really needed to be done. I pictured any number of things to get me through it: the marathon, the last mile of Sunday’s 11-miler, people cheering…anything to look away from simulated track on the screen. I did finish, though, and this is encouraging. I’ll need that confidence when I run the race, and knowing that I can keep going even when my legs are leaden and my stomach is squirrelly is comforting.
Food and apparel planning for this weekend’s fun run are already beginning. I’m excited to take a little vacation. Hopefully I can still pull off my old bathing suit.
Today was my first tempo run. Apparently I should eat and drink eggnog, liquor, champagne, Mexican dip, cake, brownies, caramel, and French toast all the time, because the hardest part of my run was keeping under pace. Running an 11:31 minute mile was nearly impossible. I felt like I was walking. The two miles at 9:56 were too fast, as well. I ran the first one at 9:27 and the second one at 8:58. I don’t know what my problem was, but it the first time I couldn’t slow myself down! Maybe I’m faster than I thought I was. Even the last two miles, which I desperately tried to tone down by looking at my watch every, like, ten seconds, were too fast.
According to the FIRST plan, which I’m following, a lot of runners will feel that the assigned tempos and intervals are too slow at first. I also remember Mandy talking about having a hard time keeping the pace down. Maybe this is something common to the plan.
I have to admit that it feels pretty good to finally have this problem, though. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever run a mile in less than nine minutes.
Filed under: Speedwork, Training Runs | Tags: good day, running, running routes, short run, winter
Don’t worry. As soon as I get a more functional outer layer (and maybe some YakTrax), I’ll be back outside. It’s not like I have much of a choice; Hyannis is in February, and it’s along the beach. You can’t get much colder than a New England beach in February.
For tonight, though, I hit the treadmill once more. I wasn’t planning to run hard tonight. I borrowed my roommate’s boyfriend’s headphones (I threw mine in the wash by accident – oops), turned on my iPod, took a swig of water, and hit “Start.” I finished tonight’s 5-miler in just under forty-five minutes.
The thing is, I can only give credit to the iPod. I rarely listen to music during runs, unless I know that my route is going to be particularly boring. Today, though, I plugged that thing in, and off I went. Madonna, Black-Eyed Peas, the Offspring, anything with a hard, pounding bass line. I couldn’t slow down if I wanted to.
It was exhilarating. I just have to remember that I’m not going to be using an iPod for any of my races, and I can’t rely on music to give me speed.
I hope I’ll be able to run fast on my own one day!
Filed under: Inspiration, Speedwork, Training Runs | Tags: good day, running, Speedwork
…to acknowledge that I finally timed my five-miler, and I’ve broken 50 minutes! I ran a loop through Brookline today, including some pretty decent hills, in just over 47 minutes. This means I’m finally running sub-10 minute miles.
For me, this is huge. I’m really excited.
Filed under: Dealing, Speedwork | Tags: healing, moving, running, sadness, slow, Speedwork, struggle, Team
…asked a friend from the Team. He was referring to my somewhat pathetic 800m PR. Tonight was my second speed workout. I ran the 400s much slower than last week, but managed to shave seven seconds off the 800. That brings it down to a very penguin-y 341 seconds. I’m starting to realize that I have pretty crappy endurance. This shouldn’t surprise me, as endurance tends to be a weakness in my instrumental playing, as well (yes, I’m a musician, but we’re not getting anymore specific than that). Yes, I can run for a long time, but I cannot, cannot run fast. I really want to, though!
After the run, we stuck around the park, talking and eating pizza and swatting away bugs. The pizza was an enormous relief, as I really wasn’t in the mood to cook tonight. Honestly, I’m not in the mood to do much of anything. I have a mountain of packing to do, and I have to plan the three-day solo drive to my new city. I’m procrastinating like mad and the fact that nothing was supposed to end up this way isn’t helping much.
I wish so badly that I could call you-know-who and tell him everything. You know, the details of my everyday life, things I need to do, will be doing, my general thoughts on things I saw, funny anecdotes, commentary on the news, musings on life and God. It’s a terrible loss. Running helps; it distracts, it bumps my concentration somewhere else, and it’s a good timeline: run the Pig, and when you do, nine months will have passed. And who knows what will happen in nine months?
But running takes up maybe ten percent of each long, long week. I know the deal: keep busy, think about other things, pray, etcetera. The pain will end, they say. You’ll get through it, they say. You’re strong, they say. That last one, now – that last one, I just don’t understand. I wish I were strong. I wish I were.
