Speed workout, long time no see. I missed you.

Last night was supposed to be an easy 3 miles. When I got off work it was 92 degrees with 25 mph winds. I was sweating in my car driving home from work. UGH. Apparently we were 2 measly degrees from breaking the temp record yesterday. Darn. Anyway, because of the elements, I decided to head to my gym, and switch out my quarter mile repeat workout. My love. :) If you've been following along at home, I stopped doing sprint workouts after the Washington Pavilion 5k because my stupid strained ab was still, well, strained, and I knew the speed work, specifically the sprinting part of the speed work, was causing it to not heal. That means the last sprint/speed workout I did was April 15th! I looked at my running log and decided I would run them at the same pace I did then, and scale back/stop if the ab started to hurt.

IT. WAS. AWESOME. I felt like I was flying (especially since I was on the treadmill). I did 6 x .25 at roughly mile pace, with a .1 walk break in between. I warmed up with .5 and cooled down with a .5. The best news was, I didn't hurt. At all. :)

.5 warm up 4:30/9:00 pace
.25 1:43/6:52 pace (2 at this pace)
.25 1:42/6:48 pace (2 at this pace)
.25 1:41/6:44 pace
.25 1:30/6:35 pace
.5 cool down 4:30/9:00 pace

Avg. pace for sprints 6:46, warm up/cool down 9:00.

I'm also excited because these felt (dare I say it) easy. Granted the last couple had me huffing and puffing, but I remember being much more labored on these a couple of months ago. Assuming the pain doesn't come back, I think I'll be bumping up the speed a bit. YAY!

This also makes me think that I could do another race before June 27th (the next one I have on my list). There is a 5k on May 30th put on by the Canaries/Roller Dollz, and another 5k on June 6th for SIDS research. 5 more weeks is a looooong time to wait to race, so we'll see. Luckily these are races that you can sign up the night before and still get the low low rate.

Today's weather is pretty similar to yesterday's, except more wind. Ya, seriously. It might be another gym day because somehow easy does not equal sweating my behind off while fighting hurricane like winds (or so I'm guessing since we don't have hurricanes here, obv). Then I get to watch the bf's team kick some softball booty. Go T-bagz. (Um..ya.)

It's a PR party. St Patty's Day Style.

Pre-race photo.  See how windy it is!  Sweet hair me.

I finally had my St. Patty's Day 5k this morning that I've been talking about for. ev. er.  Or maybe it just feels like it.  But if you're my friend, co-worker, or even just someone dumb enough to pause next to me in the streets/elevator/hallway I've told you about my training.  Anyways,  it went pretty darn well.  My cheering posse dwindled down into almost none existence, but that's to be expected.  Hah.  

I've been a little concerned about the race because my hip has been bothering me considerably for the last few weeks, both running and walking, so I wasn't sure how she was going to hold up.  Also, I was running/training for the race with my running buddy Matty.  We weren't planning on actually running together, but we've done a few of our training runs side by side on the ol' treadmill.  The race started fabulous.  Oh so glad I decided to wear running pants/tights rather than shorts.  Eek.  Because I've been running on the treadmill so much in training for this race (meaning only ONE run in the last 2 months has been outside--it's been cold.  Sue me) I haven't really had to pace myself, the machine has done it for me.  I had it all planned out in my head where my mile splits should be for me to PR in the race.  My first glance at my watch was at 8:50.  What?!?!  Am I going THAT slow???  No mile markers wtf?  At this point I realized that there were no mile markers.  Awesome blossom.

I also had time to smile and wave to ma and pa when I ran by them.  They're just super fans, it's not even funny.  So I'm trudging along into the bitter bitter cold and wind, trying to run behind people to take off some of the wind for me.  Unfortunately, runners are tiny, so ya.  Great wind shield you are scrawny chick.  At the halfway point my watch said 12:58.  Whoo.  Under 26 minutes, plus I have an oh-so-fabulous kick stored up inside me.  Secretly at this point, I'm also hoping to catch up to Matty and beat him.  Heheh.  I slowly start to pick off people, knowing that the majority of the second half of the race is downhill (since the previous half was uphill, duh).  My first step down this hill and I have this sharp shooting pain in my side.  Really?  This is what a cramp feels like?  How have I NEVER had one of these?  Ouch.  Ouch.  Must stop.  Pain.  Oh...there's mom and dad again.  Try not to look like I'm in too much pain.  Must look cute for the pictures mom's snapping.  Ouch ouch ouch.  Basically at this point I think that it'll hurt just the same if I stop (big big BIG lie I'm telling myself here) as it will if I keep running.  I only have a mile left, no biggie.  Who cares that I can't take a full breath, right?

This inner monologue goes on for roughly 1/2 a mile when the route starts to go slightly uphill again.  Just enough to ease my cramp.  YAY.  I start to pick up the pace a bit from the slow painful march, and again start running into the wind.  Seriously?  Wind the whole route, out and back?  Is that possible?  I look at my clock and realize that I have to finish in the next 2:30 to PR and the finish line doesn't look that far away.  I sneak behind some unsuspecting runners for the next 1:30 so they can fight the wind on the remaining incline, and then kick in the ol' sprinteroo and pass 5-7 of them before the finish line (all boys except one, thank you very much).  I came in at 25:48 which is my best time by 46 seconds.  Go me.  Plus it's my best time in 2 years, which is even cooler, since the last 3 5ks I've done I've gotten progressively slower.  

Matt and I will be heading to eat delicious food and drinks as soon as I get my lazy butt off the couch, and will be celebrating St. Patty's day like a true Irish (wo)man should.  Don't worry, I'll also be celebrating on Tuesday.  Dual St. Patty's Day week--you just might kill me.  Erin go bragh.  

Post-race photo.  He's got a sweet Leprecaun/tuxedo shirt under that jacket. 

P.S.  I didn't beat Matt.  He did FABULOUS.  But there's always next time.  :)

Race Stats:

Division Place: 10 out of 70

Gender Place: 21 out of 167

Overall Place: 91 out of 284

Countdown.

The St. Patty's Day 5k is in 6 days.  Whoo.  I did my last long run of 7 miles this morning and it felt good.  I really hope the weather isn't atrocious, because I think I have a honest shot of a significant PR.  I'm mentally planning about 3 different race outfit options depending on the weather.  Having as much green clothes as I do really makes it difficult to narrow the decision down.  What a horrible problem to have.

I'm just really excited about falling back in love with running.  The last couple of years I've just been running for the sake of running.  It's been awhile since I actually looked forward to my runs, and started to get that competitive streak back in me.  Looking at my 7 mile from today, I really think I'll be able to get under 2 hours in one or both of my 1/2s this year, which would be amazing.  I had kind of given up on that hope since I had started to run at a snail's pace.  I'm also even contemplating doing a half this spring.  I could have 2 months to train (if I found one in May) and I'm already up to 7 miles for my long run.  It's not a bad idea.  But scary.  I'm used to "training" from February to September for my 1/2.  But since that training consisted of about 1 long run a week, maybe that's why it took so long to prepare.  :p

If you're in the area on Saturday and want to see me in all my green glory, let me know.  I'd love to have some extra support!

Race Annoucements

I am excited to announce some big races I have decided to do.  I have decided to finally commit to running a marathon.  Whoo.  I've wanted to run a marathon for as long as I can remember, but each 1/2 that I have trained for and completed has shown me my lack of dedication.  I have been thinking about my running and training lately, and realized that this is the time in my life when I have the most time to dedicate towards working out.  It will be very difficult to train for a marathon when I have a family, and that could be reason enough to keep me from training at all. 

When I first started running races, I said that I wanted to do the Green Bay marathon as my first.  It's a great Packer fan first marathon.  The last mile is a lap around Lambeau Field.  What more could a person want?!?  I've decided that May 2010 will be my first (and hopefully not last) marathon.

I know this may seem like pretty far off, so I do have a plan to keep me motivated and excited to train for the next 15 months.  I will be running the Sioux Falls 1/2 marathon in September as I have done for the last 4 years.  Instead of falling off the face of the earth after the race, I will set my sights on the Dallas White Rock Marathon in Dallas, TX in December.  From here I will be able to continue on my training with Green Bay in my near future.

Over the next few months, I will be running a few 5ks or 10ks to keep me going prior to starting my 1/2 marathon training, and am really excited to see what my race times will end up.  I've put so much more time and energy into running this last 2 months.  It'll be nice to see what the ol' legs can pull off.