This Week's Training and Life Outside of Running

I've continued my training this week, although it's taken me a little longer to recover from Saturday's 9 miler. On Monday, I ran 2.45 miles in 50:04 minutes, for a 20:27 average pace. I see a pattern now where I slow down the week after a longer weekend run. I wonder if it would help if I changed my runs to Tuesdays and Thursdays before work, instead of Mondays and Wednesdays. Maybe.

This morning, I hit the gym and rode 5.15 miles in 35:01 minutes. I felt like I worked harder than the clock and mileage indicated, but I did ride on a different stationary bike today, and am still a little tired. Huh.

Meanwhile, my laptop got wet on Sunday night (rain from leaky roof came through my home office ceiling and soaked my computer!!), and while it booted up last night, it wasn't as happy this morning. I was able to turn the laptop on and putter for a few minutes before it shut down on its own, and wouldn't come back up at all. I'll try again tonight, but I'm not hopeful.

[On a side note, I haven't been able to sync my Garmin Forerunner to my online training logs to update them with my runs, but as soon as I get set back on a personal computer, I look forward to doing that. I'm at my geekiest with numbers about my runs!]

On a happier note, I'm starting graduate school today! I'll be working on my Master of Library Science (MLS) at North Carolina Central University in Durham, and my first class is this evening! This has been a goal of mine for over 10 years, so I'm feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness today. :-) I'll have a class on Tuesday evenings and every other Saturday, so I'll have to be creative with my half marathon training, for sure.

Gym Workout

This morning I rode 5:04 miles in 31:02 minutes on the recumbent bike at the gym. My legs still felt a bit tired, probably from Saturday's hilly long run. I decided not to worry about it and moved on the the weights for some upper body strength training (machine and dumbbell combo). I felt like I had a good upper body workout this morning! I think that if  I can be consistent with the strength training (especially core and upper body), it could really help me with the running.

I'm still mulling over my long run last Saturday, and how hard it was. Part of it was the humidity, heat, and hills, I know, but it was my slowest average pace for the season! I decided to plug my most recent Magic Mile time in on Jeff Galloway's website, and it says I should be training at a 23:35 minute/mile pace for a half marathon! It makes my 20:26 min/mile average pace from Saturday seem pretty good. It makes me wonder if my Magic Mile last week could've been faster. Maybe, but it felt like a pretty hard effort. Well, it could be that I'm still doing a pretty short long run (6 miles this past weekend), and I'll need the cushion of the extra minutes when the longer miles kick in, especially while it's still so hot! But I also hope that my endurance and speed will continue to improve, resulting in a faster Magic Mile.

Meanwhile, I've been tweaking my half marathon training schedule a bit, based on my target race and class schedule for the fall. (I'm starting graduate school part time in August, and will have a class every other Saturday.) I'm actually looking forward to making it work. Weekend long runs will be more challenging on class weekends, but I'm determined to make it work!

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Running Dreams

I had two dreams about running recently, one Saturday night and another Sunday night, both involving my running speed (or lack there of). In Saturday night's dream, I was running a marathon that was taking me all day (quite literally)! In Sunday night's dream, I was meeting up with the running group, which was so large that we had to meet inside a mall (don't know why!). In the dream, I was walking around and looking at all the runners before we got started, and I was thinking, "I'm not going to be able to keep up with any of these people!"

Gee, do you think I have issues about my speed? :-P So, what am I going to do about it?

When I woke up yesterday (Monday) morning, I shook a leg and headed to the gym for a solid workout before work. I need to remember not to overdo it this week, though, since I have a 5K this weekend.

Back at the Gym After a Rest Day

After taking a rest day from exercise yesterday, I headed back to the gym today. I'm still a bit tired from Saturday's 16 mile run/walk on the American Tobacco Trail, but not as sore as I thought I would be! Still, I decided to save another run for tomorrow, and did some crosstraining instead.

1) Walked 2.06 miles (35:01 min) on the treadmill. I pushed the speed a little, but left the incline alone.

2) Rode 5.42 miles (30:01 min) on the recumbent bike. I pedaled a little faster, and did the interval program on the recumbent bike.

I've exchanged a couple of emails with Christina recently, and she's really got me thinking about my training, and how I need to step it up a notch and get outside my comfort zone, both physically and mentally, when it comes to my marathon training. There is a balance between pushing yourself and resting your body and mind a bit, of course. I'll want to listen to my body and try to prevent both injury and burnout. That said, I'm excited about this attitude shift, especially on the heals of my personal distance record 16 mile run/walk last Saturday!

Blah

This morning I just didn't feel like exercising. I had another late one last night (didn't get home until 10!), so I was feeling sluggish when I stumbled out of bed. The outside air helped, so I decided to run outdoors, first 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes, and I kept going until I'd logged 33 minutes and 2.22 miles. (Cool the way the numbers worked out!) The 14:53 average pace is pretty good, considering my weariness. I'm tired of being tired in the morning, and need to work on winding down and getting to bed at a better time.

I did a run/walk combination again, but this time I tried some different things, like running from point A to point B instead of worrying so much about the time. That was a nice change of pace.

As I type right now, I have the "Today Show" on in the background, and they're covering the Cary, NC, jogger who went missing and was found murdered a couple of days ago. It's a very sad story, and it's made me even more aware when I run outside. I miss my iPod when I run outside, but I usually don't feel as safe when I run with an iPod outside the gym.

Almost There

This morning was kind of a wimpy workout for me. Did a little over 6 minutes on the treadmill for .54 miles, when I paused the treadmill to look at my iPod (which I rarely bother to do during a running workout). When I was ready to go again, I accidentally hit the reset button rather than the restart button! Ackdsubjkfdsbk! I got another 15 minutes on running in for 1.37 miles. That's 1.91 miles for the day, and 19.57 miles for the week! So close to 20! I'm tempted to strap on my new Garmin Forerunner 205 and run around the apartment complex. If I do, I'll report on how it goes.

I must confess that I'm running out of running steam a little bit this week. It doesn't feel like a loss of motivation, just feeling tired from getting accustomed to the higher mileage. I guess this is why the experts suggest that you have 20 miles per week as a running base for quite some time before sigining up for a marathon. I'm really feeling that it'll take my body a while to adjust. In time, I'll probably have to adjust my runs so that I'm running my long runs on the weekends.

Training for another 5K

Well, I didn't exactly start training for another 5K this morning, as I only managed to do 30 minutes on the elliptical, due to continued weariness. But I did register for a 5K next month, the Apex Turkey Trot on November 17th! I'm excited to have this to shoot for and can't wait to get back on the treadmill now.

There's another 5K in Raleigh on November 10. I'm thinking about doing it too. Could I do 5Ks two weekends in a row?

More running

This morning I spent 30 minutes running on the treadmill (2.21 mi), then 20 minutes on the elliptical. I can tell I've work out, but I don't feel as wiped out as I did after my 45-minute run a couple days ago. Guess I need to work my way back up to that time more slowly.

I've been checking out some half marathon training programs online, and the ones for running start with the premise that the person has been running 30 minutes 3-4 times a week for a while to buld the endurance base. Although I have a pretty decent endurance base with the elliptical work, I need to fine-tune it some more with the running, it sounds like.