Greensboro Gobbler

Thanksgiving morning, Katie, Phillip and I got up early to head to Greensboro for a 5k. The race was two loops around Greensboro County Park. Again with the hills! Running in Virignia Beach, the highest elevation I usually encounter is like 44 feet. I guess I need to increase the incline on the treadmill every now and then. But while I can, I just want to enjoy my flat running surfaces! My time was 51:40, about a 2:30 improvement over my first 5k. My pace was a 16:40 minute mile. It's coming along

Half of a Half

It was a great day for a race. The weather was nice, which always makes me have a better attitude. Phillip and I were running a relay with two of our other neighbors. Phillip ran the first 6.7 miles in about 58 minutes which gave me plenty of time to finish the second 6.4 miles and not come in last (always my goal). I got a new Nike+ sports watch earlier this week and today was my first time trying it out. I have to say I'm very happy with it. I was able to plug it into my computer and get all of my stats as soon as I got home. I did my 6.4 miles in 1:44:53, with an average pace of 16:32, 20 seconds faster than my average pace from the wicked 10k two weeks ago! The intervals are working! My fastest mile was 15:06- about 4 mph. I'm very happy with my progress so far and I'm really looking forward to my next 5k in 11 days. I'd love to finish that in 45 minutes, so that is the goal!

Here is a picture of team running in sanity from our first relay together and a couple of our running neighbors as well

The long interval

Was tough. The breakdown was this: 5 minute run, 2 1/2 minute rest, 6 minute run, 3 minute rest, 7 minute run, then done. Sounds easy, right? That is what I was thinking when Phillip laid out the workout for me last night. I was thinking I'd be able to do it all at a 12 minute pace. Nope. I started there, but ended up with a 15 minute pace when I went to the 6 minute run and 7 minute run. Most important, I accomplished it and while I did not like the workout while actually doing it, I did enjoy the feeling that of finishing that workout! Next on the agenda is half of the Freedom half marathon on Sunday. Phillip and I are running it as a relay, so we'll see how it goes!

Sprints

These were on the agenda today. I learned that I have a love/hate relationship with sprints. I love how fast they are done (total workout time today-17 minutes including rest breaks) but I was wiped out! I was happy with them over all. Here's how it broke down:
20 second sprint/10 second rest repeated for 6 minutes
Rest 3 minutes
20 second sprint/10 second rest repeated for 4 minutes
Rest 2 minutes
20 second sprint/10 second rest repeated for 2 minutes

So hard but so rewarding to be done. Most of this workout was done at. 6.5 mph pace. I started at 7 mph, but that ended up to be a little too fast! Back to the longer intervals on Wednesday and next up is the freedom half marathon on Sunday. This one is a relay- so I'll only be running half of the half.

A new type of training

So I asked for advice on my training from my husband. He definitely has more experience with working out and training than I do so I like to run things by him. I've been following a plan laid out by Jeff Galloway. He is the official trainer for the run Disney events. Phillip looked over what the plan was and suggested a few changes. Today was the first of the changes.

So today I was doing 800 meter intervals. Basically running 800 meters and then taking a 2 minute break. Phillip suggested I do them at a 4 mph pace (I did them on the treadmill so I could make sure to stay on pace). Well, I'm stubborn and competitive, so I decided to do them at a 5 mph pace. I was able to do two at that pace, and then finished 3 more at a 4.5 mile pace. My left knee is hurting a little, hopefully that'll just go away. 4 mile run on Friday :)