... but I officially consider myself a runner! I've wanted to be a runner for some time, and I dabbled in it here and there, but I really believe that in the last year I've committed and have become an actual runner. This week I turn 32 and this last year has probably been one of the best of my life. And these are the reasons why:
- Lost 75lbs!
- Ran my first (and second) half marathon
- Participated in 7 races (5k, 10k & half marathons) and improved my time for each one.
- Committed to running a full marathon
This year I hope will be just as good or come in a close second, with the following goals:
- Maintain my new weight
- Finish my first marathon under 4 hours
- Run my second marathon even faster
- PR again in the 5k, 10k and half marathon distances
I've just finished week 4 of my marathon training plan and so far, so good. I'm looking forward to getting through my half marathon that is in about 5 weeks. Once that is over its all about marathon training only. I can't wait!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Recovery Run - Proud to be slow?
Yesterday I scheduled a recovery run into my routine for the simple sake of doing some sort of physical activity that would hopefully not impact my 5k tomorrow. Advice from my coach was to do a very easy run for only 45 minutes. I was not looking forward to it.
Due to the weather in my area, I've been a regular at my gym for my runs and have become accustomed to "showing off", or at least trying to, by killing it with my intervals and tempo runs. Being able to run 5 miles at 7.3mph or doing 400s at 8.0mph is pretty awesome, for me. Not to say that I'm some amazingly fast runner, because obviously I'm not blowing up records or anything, but I've improved so much in the past two years that I'm proud of my current speeds. And, I know for a fact that I'm often cruising MUCH faster than some of the other people on the treadmills around me. The reason I know? Because I look! :D And, you can't tell me that you aren't sneaking a peak at your neighbor's speed to see how you compare too, just like I do. I'm always curious how fast people are going and whether nor I'm going faster, it's probably that whole competitive thing that I've grabbed onto since I started racing.
So, when I arrived at the gym to do this "recovery run", I was all too happy to pick a treadmill where there were no immediate neighbors. I honestly didn't want people to see how slow I was going... 5.6mph... Embarrassing! Or was it? My goal was to do a recovery run, keep my pace slow and my heart rate down. I busted out 4 miles in 43 minutes, truly not an achievement by any means, but my average heart rate was the lowest I have ever seen it on a run of any kind. About halfway through the run I realized that it didn't matter if people were looking over at me and thinking, wow she is slow! Because really, my goal was not to kick the crap out of my pace that day, it was to just get in an easy workout, and I did that.
Now the question will be, the next time I'm there kicking it on a tempo run and I checkout my neighbor's speed... will I think to myself, dude that person is slow! if they are going 5.6mph? The answer is, yes, I probably will. But, I will then consider that they might be doing a recovery run like I did and I'll divert my focus back on my own running, which is where it probably should have been to begin with.
Due to the weather in my area, I've been a regular at my gym for my runs and have become accustomed to "showing off", or at least trying to, by killing it with my intervals and tempo runs. Being able to run 5 miles at 7.3mph or doing 400s at 8.0mph is pretty awesome, for me. Not to say that I'm some amazingly fast runner, because obviously I'm not blowing up records or anything, but I've improved so much in the past two years that I'm proud of my current speeds. And, I know for a fact that I'm often cruising MUCH faster than some of the other people on the treadmills around me. The reason I know? Because I look! :D And, you can't tell me that you aren't sneaking a peak at your neighbor's speed to see how you compare too, just like I do. I'm always curious how fast people are going and whether nor I'm going faster, it's probably that whole competitive thing that I've grabbed onto since I started racing.
So, when I arrived at the gym to do this "recovery run", I was all too happy to pick a treadmill where there were no immediate neighbors. I honestly didn't want people to see how slow I was going... 5.6mph... Embarrassing! Or was it? My goal was to do a recovery run, keep my pace slow and my heart rate down. I busted out 4 miles in 43 minutes, truly not an achievement by any means, but my average heart rate was the lowest I have ever seen it on a run of any kind. About halfway through the run I realized that it didn't matter if people were looking over at me and thinking, wow she is slow! Because really, my goal was not to kick the crap out of my pace that day, it was to just get in an easy workout, and I did that.
Now the question will be, the next time I'm there kicking it on a tempo run and I checkout my neighbor's speed... will I think to myself, dude that person is slow! if they are going 5.6mph? The answer is, yes, I probably will. But, I will then consider that they might be doing a recovery run like I did and I'll divert my focus back on my own running, which is where it probably should have been to begin with.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Marathon Training: Week 2 Complete
Just finished up my last training run of the week, it was a 10 mile progression run. I headed to the gym to hit my trusty treadmill, which was apparently a good thing since the weather turned to blizzard-like conditions while I was there! So with my progression run I started out with 4 miles at a 10 min pace, then I increased to my MGP of 9 min for the next 3 miles and finally ended the last 3 miles at HMGP which was 8:30. I think the run went really well. I was tired at the end but not too tired to where I thought I couldn't do more. I am looking forward to my longer runs increasing and seeing how well I can manage the additional distance past the half marathon distances. Only time will tell, but for now I'm feeling pretty good about my training.
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