TexasLindsey

I wanted to see if I could break 24 minutes for a 5k so I signed up for this race last minute.  I did it!  23:49 is my new PR for a 5k.   This was a hilly course and it was hot and super humid (over 70%)... so that makes me even more proud.  It was an out and back course.  The first half went downhill alot... which meant the second half was mostly uphill. 

Splits

7:18

7:38

7:41

7:22 (last .1)

My husband is out of town AGAIN. Today, my sister watched the boys so I could go run today at 11 am. It was HOT (almost 90 degrees), HUMID (over 70%) and sunny. I ran at a park by her house that has a 2.4 mile sidewalk path. It's a great flat path but at this time of day there was absolutely no shade. My plan was to do 3 laps but I only ended up doing 2 laps plus an additional .2 miles to make it an even 5 miles. I just felt like I was melting in the sun. I feel so guilty for quitting.

Next week we're going on vacation. We're staying at a house on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico in Tx. So stay tuned if you want to hear about running on the beach in the Texas heat and humidity. I did find a running group that is running 12-20 miles on Sundays, which is good because I will be there 2 Sundays. I emailed the group and they said for me to come on out to run with them. So I'm determined to keep up my training on vacation.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get over to my sister's by 8am so I can run earlier and hopefully more miles.

Splits

9:25

9:25

9:43

9:52

9:50

This was a tough one.  It's been hot all summer but this last week it's started to get horribly humid too.  It's awful.  I'm still depending on my sister to babysit while I run this week.  This time I tried really hard to get over to her house early so I could start when it wasn't as hot.  The best I could manage with my 3 year old and 6 month old was getting there by 9am. 

It was a little better than yesterday.  The first mile was against a wind - not so windy that it slowed me down but just enough that it really cooled me off - which is the reason the first split was so good.  I didn't even feel like I was going that fast that first mile and I was surprised when I saw it was 8:19.  ...But that first mile was all south with the wind blowing toward, then the path turned and went the opposite direction and I guess because I was running in the same direction as the wind, it had the effect of feeling there was no wind at all so I felt like I was in a sauna.  When I went in that direction, the sweat just soaked me.  I figure with the humidity sweat just wouldn't evaporate until I got going toward the wind again. 

So that's how it went around this 2.4 mile loop... one way felt great, the other way was torture.  You can kinda see the yo-yo affect in my splits.  After two laps I was pretty hot and miserable.  I stopped at my car, drank some cold water and sat in the a/c for a couple minutes... then I told myself that if I ever thought I wanted to run a marathon I had to make it at least 8 miles today.   I ran until my watch said 8.1 miles and then I quit... most of the way I was reminding myself to not be a wimp.

I actually had some good times considering how miserable I was. 

Splits

8:19

9:00

9:08

9:28

9:13

9:50

9:47

8:55

I went to the gym today to beat the heat.  I hate treadmill running.  It's soooooo boring.  So I decided to have fun with speed today and just ran a 5k. 

I put the incline at 1.0 because I've read that it has to be at that incline to make it at all comparable to running outside.

I started out first 1/2 mile on 6.8 speed which felt pretty easy. (about 8:45 pace)

Then I ramped it up to 7.2 for the next 1.5 miles. (8:20 pace)

When it said I was at the 2 mile mark, I started increasing speed every 1/4 mile.  So I did a quarter mile at 7.4 (8:06 pace), then another quarter at 7.6 (7:54 pace), then a quarter at 7.8 (7:42 pace) and a quarter at 8.0 (7:30 pace). 

When it said I was at the 3 mile mark, I increased speed to 10.0 (6:00 pace) and ran the last .1 mile of my "5k" at that speed. 

My final time was 25:10 for the 3.1 mile run... but that included my 1/2 mile warm-up.  Looks like I averaged 8:10 a mile.   I wish I had time to do it again and see if I could do better without a warm-up but I had to leave to get my kids.  Maybe I'll do it again tomorrow.

Wanna hear something funny?  I used to run in college on my apartment gym's treadmill all the time.  I didn't race back then... I just did it to stay in shape... BUT I do remember that I would run on a 5.5 speed most of the time and I thought 6.0 was fast.  When I was in really good shape and wanted to show off to a cute guy in the gym, I'd crank it up to 6.5 but I couldn't hold that for long.  Ha, ha!  

It still kinda makes me nervous putting the speed on the treadmill higher and higher... even though I know I can do it... I don't know why.  I also get nervous when I see on my watch that I'm running "too fast"... even if I don't feel bad at that speed, if I look down and see a 7 something, I freak out a little... and then I have to talk myself out of being nervous.  I think I've got some kind of mental block I've got to get passed.   Maybe if I keep doing tempos at track or treadmill I can overcome this. 

My husband's back from his trip so I was able to run in the morning today.  SOOO much nicer!  I'm glad I got a taste of running in the heat and humidity this week because it made me appreciate the cool weather that much more.  My Garmin was not charged, but I used a timer and went my normal 8 mile loop.  I ran it in 1:12:20... so right at a 9:00 pace.  Felt pretty great! 

Tomorrow I'm running 16 with the group. 

Had a GREAT run this morning with my group.  It was humid again but I think running in the heat prepared me for that better than if I had been running in the early morning all week.  Also, the speed workout might have helped. 

I ran with my friend, Brenda, who has a 3:31 marathon PR.  She and I were right behind these other two girls who usually smoke me.  Today we decided to keep up with them.  We were only about 150 feet behind them when she had to turn around at mile 6.5 to go back. 

So on my own I caught up to the two girls in front at the mile 11 water stop.  I ran with them the rest of the way.  I couldn't believe I could hang with them... but I did!   One of the girls and I started speeding up in the last 3 miles... but I just had a second wind or something.  I got up to 7:35 a mile and left her in my dust!!  

So I was the first girl in my whole running group to finish today.  I was 3rd overall behind two guys who run 6 minute pace in marathons - they told me they ran it today at 7:20 pace because it was so humid.

Splits

mile 1 - 8:17

mile 2 - 8:11

mile 3 - 8:25

mile 4 - 8:17

mile 5 - 8:09

mile 6 - 8:31

mile 7 - 8:21

mile 8 - 8:30

mile 9 - 8:19

mile 10 - 8:06

mile 11 - 8:25

mile 12 - 8:05

mile 13 - 8:19

mile 14 - 8:30

mile 15 - 7:35

mile 16 - 7:38 (last .7 mile)