Running Chick

Two weeks down, ten to go.  The cold weather streak we’ve been having finally broke and we had some nice outside running temps this week. I was a little bit worried that all the time I spent running on the treadmill while it was minus one billion degrees outside softened me to outside running, but I survived.

Monday – 3 miles easy (@10:56)

It was still pretty cold outside, so I plugged away on the treadmill for this one.  I was having one of those days where running on the treadmill seems harder than outside.

Tuesday – 7x400 Intervals (overall 4.63 miles @ 9:41)

Josh and I did these at the SDC over lunch. The track is usually pretty empty around lunchtime, but it was a bit crowded and we ended up doing a lot of swerving around people and dodging errant basketballs.

I was keeping track of the laps manually on my watch at the line on the floor, so I don’t know why my distance is saying .27 miles when it should be .25.  Maybe my footpod needs calibrating again?

Overall, I ended up with a smidge over 4.5 miles for the session, including warm-up & cool-down. Overall pace was 9:41.

Here’s our splits for the seven laps. I probably ran that first one too fast.

And here’s the pretty heart rate graph for those laps.

Wednesday – 3 miles easy (@ 11:00)

Treadmill run, unspectacular.

Thursday – 45 minute tempo (overall 4.51 miles @ 9:17)

I’ve done two tempo runs so far, and I’m still just as confused as ever with how to do them. I read a lot of articles on them, but it seems like every one contradicts the other.

I’m following the Hal Hidgon advance HM plan, and Hal’s recommended tempo is sort of a right-shifted bell-curve where you gradually work toward your 10k pace and then when you reach it, which should be in the final 2/3 of your tempo, you just hold it for a few minutes before slowing down. He includes the warm-up & cool-down in the total tempo time.

Other articles advise to exclude the warm-up & cool-down from the total temp time, and also have you stay at your 10k pace for longer.  Others just recommend doing tempo intervals. Ugh, so confusing.

Since I really don’t know what my 10k pace is, I just try to pick something that’s hardish and hold it for my fast section. Here’s what I ended up doing.

The first mile was my warm-up. Then I gradually worked my way toward 10k pace, dropping my speed each mile. I held my 10k pace for a mile, then started to back off until I hit 45 minutes and jogged back home. I have no idea if this is how I’m supposed to be doing tempo runs.

My overall pace for this run was 9:17 and I ended up with 5.50 miles.

Friday – Rest

I was pretty tired from the pervious runs, so I did an hour of yoga/stretching and called it good.

Saturday -  3 miles @ HM pace (overall 4.39 miles @ 9:02)

This one was a little huh? moment after I was done with this one. I’m shooting for a 2:00ish HM, so that’s a 9:09 pace. I decided I was going to run this on the upper end of hard, but try to stay out of puke territory.

Started out with a .50 mile warm-up, which wasn’t much of a warm-up thanks to Zoe, the dog that can’t go slow. Then I just started dialing in a pace that I felt like I could hold, but wasn’t all that easy. My plan was to do that for three miles, then jog back home.

I wasn’t keeping too close of an eye on my watch, just mostly distance because I was doing an out and back and wanted to not miss my turn-around. I glanced at my pace every so often just to make sure I was keeping it in the range I wanted to be in, but I was mostly going by effort. Every once in a while I’d do the talk test to see how I was doing (full sentences with no problem – too slow; a few words between breaths – just right, and where I was) and confuse Zoe. She’d throw me the strangest looks over her shoulder, as if she was saying “Who in the world are you talking to??”

I finished my miles and jogged back home. My watch said my average pace was 9:02, which was a little surprising. And it wasn’t until I pulled the data from my Garmin to see how I did that I realized I’d overshot my 3 miles and conveniently ended up with exactly 5k at race pace. That ended up being 26:45 which is a holy shit PR for me.

Sunday – 90 minute easy (overall 9.25 miles @ 10:03)

Thanks to Josh doing a downtime into the wee hours of the morning and DST (which I think is officially dumb), we didn’t get started until mid-afternoon. The weather was a balmy 38 degrees, but it was pretty windy.

I started out well enough, but about a mile into the run, my legs started to complain. They were tight, heavy and burning. Hi, lactic acid. The entire run was pretty unpleasant but the absolute worst part was the mile and a half climb up S. Superior Road back home. Hoo boy, I was in the pain arena for that entire stretch. I stopped once and strongly considered giving up entirely, but we were only a half mile from home and there way no way I was going to bail on nine miles in the last half mile. Also, I was with Josh and I wasn’t going to make him finish walking, either. So, I sucked it up, gritted my teeth (literally), and pleaded with the running gods to let me keep running. I made it, but it was pretty miserable.

Summary – I survived; feeling okay

I’m a little disappointed with how I felt on the long run, I was hoping for nice and easy and I got misery and despair, but overall I think this was a pretty good week.

I ended up with a smidge under 30 miles @ 9:53.

Next week, we have hill repeats. I missed the first session because of my bum knee, but I’m ready for these ones. Maybe I’ll do mine on S. Superior Road for a little redemption.