Funk Fixed!

I have a confession to make.  I've been in a bit of a funk.  Post half-marathon I had run 3 miles in 9 days.  I know I ran hard in the race, and my body deserved some recovery time, but it had gotten to the point where I was just being LAZY!  I am committed to running the Cellcomm Green Bay Marathon in May (and will be officially on Saturday, my golden birthday, when I'm signing up as my gift to ME!) and am doing a 14 week training program, but that doesn't start until February 7th.  What the heck do I do until then!?!?!?  Eat ice cream.  Wait.  That's what I've been doing.  Somehow I don't think that's the best plan for getting me across the finish line after 26.2.

I had used runnersworld.com to come up with a maintenance program for the next 7 weeks to bridge me until marathon training starts, but even that couldn't get me motivated.  Then I had a realization.  Duh!  I didn't want to do a 16 week marathon training program because that seemed soooo darn looooong.  Yet, esentially I would be doing a 21 week program with the maintenance program prior to the marathon training.  Um....heck no!  When I got to thinking further, I realized that I had been utilizing runners world training programs since mid-January.  Meaning, I've been following the exact same style of training for almost a full year, with only the goal pace times for some tempo runs and speed workouts changed up by a few seconds.  NO WONDER I'M BORED!

I'm definitely not knocking the runners world training programs, because they have proven to be very effective for me, but a year long is enough to make anyone go crazy.  I decided that I'm going to have fun for the next 7 weeks.  I've been saying that I would really like to work on speed work for a while and do a full out mile to see how fast I could do it in.  Well Jeri, no time like the present!  I plan to keep my long runs in the 9-13 range, but have fun with speedwork.  After all it is my one true love.  Plus since it looks like I'll be a slave to the treadmill for quite a few runs this winter, it makes sense to fully embrace some hardcore speed work.

With that being said, I think I'm going to create my own maintenance training program/7 weeks of speed program.  Usually I let runners world come up with something and tweak it as I see fit, but I think I'll really have some fun with this.  I think I'll really enjoy the flexibility, and that by the end of it, I'll really crave the original structure of the runners world training program.  I plan on doing 4-5 days of running, which is what I'm currently doing.  1 day of long runs, 1 day tempo, 1 day speed work (repeats/intervals), and 1-2 easy days.  I'm SO EXCITED.  Funk fixed.  Take that funk.

To start off my newly refound mojo, I borrowed a treadmill workout from a fellow midwesterner Iowa Girl Eats.  I tweaked it a bit to make it fit to my liking.  I started off with a mile warm up at 6.2 mph.  Followed by 1 minute sprints then 1 minute jogs.  The first 3 were at 8 mph, with a 6 mph jog, then 3 at 9 mph and finally 3 at 10 mph.  I finished the remaining .8 miles with a cool down jog at 6.2-6-4 mph.

HOLY SANTA CLAUS $H!T!  (bonus super sweet points if you can name that quote!)  It kicked my booty.  The first sprint felt soooo easy, that I was concerned I wasn't challenging myself enough. HA!  Shortly after I started the set at 9 mph I was getting tired!  I lasted the first minute at 10 mph, but for the last 2 I shortened it to :45 seconds, with 1:15 jog after.  People were looking at me like I was crazy, and the treadmill was a-rocking.  You know it's a good workout when the treadmill is littered with little droplets of sweat that have flung off your speedy body.  Sexy.

I did 4 miles in 35:08 for a pace of 8:47.
1. 9:42 2. 8:17 3. 7:59 4. 9:08


I really enjoyed this type of speed work, and will definitely be looking for similar workouts for my speedwork session of each week.

Also my apologies for the lack of photos in this post.  I went to a fancy Christmas dinner this weekend, and was even wearing a skirt (whoa!) and had my camera out and on the table the whole night, and didn't snap a picture.  Total failure.  Plus I wanted to let you see how cute my date was.  ;)  Shucks.