[S]he Conquers Who Endures

I was targeting 8:30s for this run. Before the run, I thought that would be pushing it because of my tiring weekend in Kansas City. After a morning hiccup of having to recharge and upload firmware onto my watch, I started out my run in 82 F and sporting my water belt with 4 bottles full of gatorade (yay for extra weight). After my first mile (8:56), my legs loosened up and felt really great. An 8:15 pace felt pretty easy, so I just maintained that pace. Ah, this run felt great physically and mentally! 11 miles at a 8:12 AP. :)

PM Crossfit

PreWOD: 3x3x3x3x3 front squats, max 75 lbs

WOD: 5 rounds for time

1 power clean (45 lbs)

2 hang cleans (45 lbs)

3 front squats (45 lbs)

30 tuck jumps

Time: 3:37 

AM Crossfit

PreWOD: Russian getups 18 lb kettlebells

WOD: 3 rounds for time

10 handstand pushups

30 box jumps (20")

50 lunges

70 situps

Time 20:47

PM speed work with a training group and coach. I was bummed because last week we did 200 m repeats because of the heat. I've been missing some longer repeats in my speed work over the past month and I think it's affecting my improvement in speed. Because of the great running weather, we did a mix of 800 m and 1 mile repeats! I was stoked. We did a 1.2 mile warmup at a 8:12 pace. Then 800 m, 1 mile, 800 m, 800 m, 1 mile. My paces were: 6:55, 6:57, 6:38, 6:39, 6:48. I've never run a mile sub 7 before!! That's 2 PRs in one workout with negative splits!!! I added extra mileage at the end around a 8:36 pace which felt like a 10:00 pace to me!! :) Ahhh, just what I needed! :)

Nice morning run. I was targeting a 8:45 recovery pace. My legs took 2 miles to loosen up from all the hard work yesterday. Then a 8:20 ish pace felt "easy"!!! AP: 8:31 min/mi

PM bikram!

I haven't done bikram in a solid 4 weeks. I usually go once per week but couldn't because of traveling. I love going to stretch out my tight muscles and speed along recovery but to also benchmark my fitness. This is a great benchmark class because it's always the same sequence of exercises. I normally try to do something each class that I haven't been able to do before to push myself and improve every time. Well, this class I noticed how much fitness I gained in the past 4 weeks! Wow, I feel so much stronger all around I can't believe it!! I was definitely pretty stiff, but felt like I could push every exercise a lot more than I ever could. :) 

Nothing starts the day better than a heaping dose of lactic acid!! I was so nervous about this run. My tempo's have been less than stellar lately, partly because of being out of town, then the terrible Chicago heat wave and partly probably because of raising my mileage. I put some pressure on myself because it's do or die time (even though I have 13 weeks to marathon). Ugh, my one mile warmup was a 8:48 pace and I felt like I was pushing it! No worries, that's why it's a WARMUP! Met up with my running partner then we did 5 miles at a 7:25 AP!!! Wow! And that's with my water belt (carrying one bottle). Our paces were: 7:44. 7:33, 7:29, 7:15, 7:09. Note that the last TWO miles were sub 5k race pace for me, AND negative splits to boot!! I rounded out my run with 0.5 mile easy, then 3 0.1 mile strides with 0.1 mile recovery (5:37, 5:19, 5:19 min/mi paces). I think today was a lesson on my need for improvement of self-confidence. Yes, I'm running a ton faster than ever before, but why set a mental limit on myself? Now I know where I'm at, and I'm actually confident I could break these paces on next week's tempo run. Pushing my lactic threshold = faster pace below threshold on marathon day (aka BQ day)! :) Oh, and I just realized I crushed my 8k PR from March in this workout!!!

Rest day! And I need it too. It'll be a day of hydrating well and getting in a higher ratio of carbs to prep for my 18 miler tomorrow! Time to get pumped!!

Yay! I was so excited for this run! I'm really loving these long runs. There's something about getting all my gear ready the night before, getting up early before everyone on a Saturday and meeting up with my group. I had a LONG run today, 18 miles. It was soooo humid out. 18 miles later, I was one happy camper. AP 8:18. I finished feeling pretty good! I have 12 weeks left of training still!! I broke 60 miles this week, for the first time ever! Upping my mileage a ton has really, really helped my running tremendously. I'm so glad I found this blog!!