Training for a Belt Buckle

1st day of speedwork this year. I have a lot of mental barriers I intend to conquer in 2011.

1 mile warmup at 12:00. Stopped to do some of the hip opening swings from the latest Runners World. The plan was to try and do .25 intervals at 7 mph but the brain mentally called it quits the first interval at .2 and at .18 the next interval. Changed up to 125 paces at 7 mph with reat intervals jogging at 4 mph for 100 paces. Repeat for 1.5 miles. Cooldown at 12 mm for .5.

10 minutes in sauna to clean out sinuses and lungs.

While cooking dinner for my son who was over doing laundry threw in 40 minutes of lower body and core training.

1 mile warmup.  Then I set out to do some miles at below 11 mm pace (my plans for January and February).  Mile 1  10:24   Mile 2  10:37   Mile 2 felt a lot harder than mile 1.  

I know it is supposed to be beneficial to take a couple of weeks off from running each year to let your body heal, but I really hate going through the muscle adaptation and stiffness when I start up again.

Picked up my Muir Fresh Harvest bundle this afternoon.  Great stuff!  $35 for about $80 worth of fresh food.  And - I got a groupon today for $20 for $50 worth of food from Winder Dairy.

Plank:  :33   Side Plank:  :32  - long way to go to catch up to Allie.

Easy run this afternoon with the dog.  I about had to drag her yesterday to do one mile in the snow - guess she remembered the pain from one of her earlier runs when she got salt in her paws continuously.  Today, I had to remind her we were doing a recovery run and slow down.

Managed to fit in Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred level 1 before hitting the shower and going to work at the temple. Still feel pathetically unfit and am using 2.5 pound weights (although it is only the first of her 3 interval sessions that beats me up). Wish the stupid video didn't have a long introduction you have to listen through each time.

Another tempo day. (Actually - I don't know what to call these days that I focus on working on getting my overall speed down, but am not doing intervals or pushing super hard).

1 mile warmup with the dog. 2 miles tempo work. .5 mile cooldown.

Mile 1:10:20      Mile 2: 10:10

The miles were definitely easier than on Tuesday. Don't know if that was because Monday was speedwork day or because I went a couple of blocks farther down 7th before turning around. 

Stretched and worked on opening up my leg flexibility post run. Core work.

3 easy miles on the treadmill at 4.5 mph.  Followed immediately by 11 minutes walking at 15% incline.  30 minutes upper body and core training.  Visited with an old co-worker from back in 2004 when I worked for the LDS Church.  15 minutes sauna.  Homemade cocoa monkey protein shake. It was delicious.

Long run day.  Decided to brave the air crap and set out from home.  9.5 miles total.

Splits (nothing to be proud of): 12:41, 12:23, 13:37 (uphill), 12:13, 1241, 13:06, 12:17, 1308