I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

I'm guessing on the fast miles here.

This workout excited me for some reason.  I warmed up for 2 miles (about 9:15 pace) and then didn't want to start my workout on :34 secs, so I waited until I had warmed up 19 minutes before beginning.

Then I did a ladder:  1 min. fast, 1 min. rec, 2 min. fast, 2 min. rec, and so on until I went up to 5 minutes fast.  Then after 5 min. rec, I went back down.  I did stop after my 5 min. fast because it was too warm for what I was wearing.  I exchanged my jacket for a long sleeve t.

I was pretty excited because I the workout portion of my run was 6 miles and it took me 50 minutes (8:20 average).  Since I don't have a garmin (although I do want one, but can't bring myself to spend the $) I don't know what my pace on the fast portion was, so I'm just guessing on how many miles I did fast.  I'm guessing my recovery pace was around 9:30, so I know the fast portion was pretty fast, if I do say so myself.

Then I cooled down a mile at 9:30 pace.

I'm thinking that my goal for the 1/2 marathon is anything under 2 hours.  1:58 would be nice.  I'm sorta thinking that if I treated it like a workout and did surges, I'd probably do better than I would if I looked at it as a race.  I have a tendency to have mental difficulties and I always find that I do better on runs that are broken into portions.  Eh.  Whatever.  I don't understand how I can coach my kids when I can't really coach myself.  I am a mental midget.

Did a threshold run.  Finished my 4 miles in 31:30.  I started off with a 8:04 mile and I guess got progressively faster because my average pace was 7:53.  It didn't feel like it, but it might have been that I had the favor of the wind for pretty much the last 2 miles.

I felt good on this run.

I was off to a late start this morning, partly waiting on hubby to come home and partly dragging my feet.

I don't know why I opted to do this one on a treadmill, but I changed my mind on my way to the gym and then changed it back when I realized I didn't have my watch AND the high school kids might be out on the track so I'd have to weave around them.  I saw them on yesterday when I ran past and I'm sure they're out again today because it's nice today (low 50s, but no wind).

So another glorious treadmill day (getting my money's worth, I guess...I haven't been there in a few weeks).

I planned on doing 5 800s and 2 400s at interval pace with a jogging recovery in between.  Somehow I lost count and accidentally missed one of the 800s.  I blame it on the fact that the first treadmill I was on shut down on me.  Twice.  So I switched treadmills part way through.  Next time I do some speed work I will bring paper so I don't miscount again.

My interval pace was 7:30 (so 3:45 for 800 and 1:53 for 400).  The last 800 was hard (and it wasn't even supposed to be the last one!) but the 400s were easy.

I hate this fast/slow mile thing and I can't remember how to change the settings so I can get more options.  

 I ran on the treadmill at my sister's house while she did the elliptical (isn't she lucky?--she has a good home gym).  It was really nice to talk to someone while I ran.  We also watched some basketball!

 I ran at 8:34 pace.  It would have been more challenging if I hadn't been talking--I wasn't watching the clock like I normally do.

My hip has been bothering me a little bit.  It does this on and off and has pretty much for the past few years.  My sister thinks it may be bursitis or tendonitis, neither of which would surprise me.  She is going to show me some strengthening excersises for my hip.  I'm going to look up some information about both possibilities.

I intended to go for 4 miles, but I don't know any routes around my parents' house except for a 7 mile route and a 3 mile route.  I just guessed at what I thought might be around 4 and it turns out it was 4.5.

I didn't bring a watch, but I ran at a brisk pace.  Not easy, but moderate.

Going out for this run, I wasn't sure exactly what my goal was:  should I do two 6.5 loops for 13 miles?  1 6.5 and one 4.5 loop for 11 miles?  When I hit about 4 miles, I realized 2 things: if I did run 11 or 13 miles, that would mean that I ran 20% more miles this week than last week, which I didn't think was a great idea; and if I had to run past my parents' house, I probably wouldn't go out for more miles.  So I stopped to stretch and really think what I should do, and then decided to turn around and go back the way I came, even though I didn't have any water with me.  This way I'm only increasing by a little more than 15%, which is probably still too much.

I also don't know my pace since I didn't even bring my watch home with me.  I did do a little tempo running within this run, but not at any regular intervals.  I let my ipod dictate--whenever it played a song that got me pumped, I would increase the pace for the duration of that song.