Bring on the challenge!

Did my sprint workout on the treadmill today.  

Okay, I just have to ask, does anyone else have friends they run with that are so competitive they just make you so mad?  Not that competition is a bad thing.  I thrive on it, believe me!  But, this is a girl I've trained with for several years and 2 years ago beat me at the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon by 3 minutes, coming around the corner and yelling to my family "I beat her!!" (They've never liked her since :) lol) Last year I kicked her trash - beat her by an entire mile in Logan and beat her PR by 3 minutes.  This year she is determined to have the same goal as me (which just means I have to up my own goal :) ).  

 So, back to my treadmill workout.  I told her about this workout and she decided to try it last week.  Of course, what I was doing, she had to do better.  Which just made me realize I've got to up mine more.  I did my 5 minute warm up, then 1 min. at 9.0, 1 min at 6.0, then alternated 9.0, 6.0 every 30 seconds for the next 15 minutes.  At 20 minutes, I did 8.0, 6.0, 30 second intervals for 5 minutes, then 8.0 for 2 minutes straight, 1 minute 6.0, and 8.0 for another 2 minutes straight.  I've decided the 8.0 pace is difficult to keep up with for a long amount of time, but I'm determined to keep working at it.  Felt AWESOME when I was done (that workout makes me sweat like a pig!). 

Anyway, I welcome any advice on getting faster.  I obviously can't let this "friend" beat me or I'll never hear the end of it :)

It's time to start upping the workouts.  

 Ran 1 mile at 10 min/mile pace to warm up (on the treadmill at 6:30 in the morning, this seems fast, even though I never run that slow outside)

Ran the next 2 miles at an 8 min/mile pace.  Could tell it was more of a workout, but felt fine. 

Finished off the rest of the 30 minutes back at the 10 min/mile pace to cool down. 

 I am running a 5K in another week.  My goal is to do in the 24 min range.  My other goal is to beat my so called "friend" (if you don't understand this, read my post from 2 days ago :) ) She asked me last night if I'd ever run a 7 minute mile.  I told her I had not (I should have said, Yeah, in high school!!).  She was going to try it this morning for kicks and giggles, just to see if she could because, after all, we have a race in 11 days!  And, that's when I knew it was time to get serious.  This could be an interesting race next week. . . :)

Ran 10 min/mile for 5 minutes to warm up.  Then ran next 3 miles at 8 min/mile pace.  Felt great! I need to do this more often!  Hope I can do this speed for the 5K next weekend!

Kind of a frustrating run this morning.  Last night I mapped out a 15 miler (with some GREAT hills!) and was excited to try it this morning.  Went with hubby and just after mile 5 he needed a potty BAD!  (It is rare that this happens with him, in fact, I think only the second time, but it brought back so many memories of a certain "friend" I would run with and it was inevitable that she would need a potty on EVERY long run!) So, I got a little frustrated.  We were by his office building (unfortunately, the only place we could think of with a bathroom) so made it there and I probably spent 10 minutes waiting.  He felt much better after and I was chomping at the bit. :) So, we bagged our original 15 mile route (mainly because of the time) and opted for the usual route, hoping we could make up some miles somewhere in between.  At about mile 12 we split up, me thinking I was only getting 13-14 miles, he wanting to do closer to the 15 we had originally planned.  I made it home and "mapped my run", and lo and behold, discovered I had, in fact, done 15!  I'm glad!  That made me feel a little better since I was feeling like I got short changed this morning.  He ended up doing closer to 16 1/2 miles.  

Anyway, I want to tackle that other route again sometime.  I need to work on those hills. . . :)