Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Week Two of Spring Training

That blog post title makes me think this post has something to do with baseball season, but alas, it's just about me running. This week I hit all four of my prescribed workouts at approximately the correct recommended paces.  Whoop. I got back in to the habit of early to bed and early to rise, to teach the treadmill who's boss before work. I also learned that VH1 plays the same music videos back to back from one morning to the next. I also learned that I can still read while running on the treadmill, so hopefully I'll get in a few extra books if I have to log treadmill miles sporadically this winter.


Wednesday I hit the treadmill in the gym for a GA run. I got caught up on Runner's World reading and spent a lot of time staring at this photo pretending I was running somewhere snow-covered but not -40 below zero. I also learned that our apartment gym isn't a trillion degrees if you go early in the morning.


Just kidding on the apartment gym heat detail. Turns out yesterday someone just left the fan on to move around the sweltering heat. It was its usually 80 degrees in there. (I think the heating is shared with the pool area, so I guess I'll just plan on FINALLY becoming acclimated to the heat....) I knocked out 3 mile repeats and didn't die, so I consider that a win.


I attempted my long run on Saturday because the temps said 20 degrees. Unfortunately the wind chill was 4, and with 25 mph winds in those sorts of temps it feels WAY colder on your face. I couldn't find my balaclava, so I ended up doing my 3 mile recovery run and pushing my LR to Sunday. Good news: balaclava found. Also this recovery pace was faster than my GA pace earlier in the week further proving that 4 degrees is much easier for me to perform than 80 degrees is. Neat.

I met up with my friend Jenn (non-purpleshoe running friend Jenn, to clarify) as she agreed to join me for some of my long run. This was my first double digit run since Madison! I told her I'd meet her at my 1.25 mile marker and gave her an approximate time of 15 minutes for my arrival (I have to stop at quite a few stop lights en route to our meet up spot). When I hit the one mile marker of the run I realized I was actually meeting her at the 2.25 spot and had to throw down the hammer so she wasn't stuck waiting for me in the cold. Bad running partner, Jerbear. The good news was that I saw 9:20-9:20s paces in that mile and a quarter to find her. The bad news is that starting off a long run with paces that are too fast pretty much ensures you will crash and burn. And I did. I didn't bring water or nutrition, oops. The last 2.5 miles weren't pretty and had a few walk breaks, but a long run with a lackluster finish is still better than no long run!

24 miles ran for the week. Whoop.

No comments: