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 :)

So About That Race

Since I know my two readers out there are anxious to know how it went, I hate to disappoint :)

I went to bed around 10 pm Friday night worried about the weather forecast for Saturday. Thursday here the high was in the mid 80s. Saturday's high was supposed to be 48 with rain happening before noon. But I was determined to make it through. I had a new pair of pants, a running jacket and a rain/windbreaker, a new hat and some gloves, so I felt prepared. Everything was laid out and I set my alarm for 5:45. Plenty of rest. Except I was having trouble sleeping, finally falling completely asleep around 1 am.

Little did I know that my littlest monkey would start throwing up at 2:30 am. Luckily her Aunt Katie who was sharing a room with her was nice enough to get up with her the first time (and second time) she threw up waiting to wake me up until 3:15 am because Sophie kept getting sick. This began my race day. I didn't make it back to sleep- little one got sick a few more times and did not want to go back to sleep- she was so uncomfortable and just miserable. She finally went back to sleep about 5:15. I tried to nap, but then I was too nervous about oversleeping. So 6 am came and I got up (after considering just skipping it) got dressed and headed outside. I was pleasantly surprised at the warmer (but super windy) weather conditions. Two of our neighbors were riding with us, so we all got in the car and started the drive. We found parking with no problem and walked the .8 miles to the start with plenty of time to spare. Checked out a bunch of fun, creative costumes while waiting for our start time.

Start time came and I put on some music. I knew I was going to be running this one alone- Phillip tool off right away and my neighbors have all been running longer and more regularly than I have, so they all have a much faster pace. Not a problem, my initial goal was to finish. I ran the first 1.5 miles without stopping. The wind was insane! Walked until almost the 2 mile mark. At the 2 mile mark I came up on a two person team who was dressed at the slinky dog from toy story. It then became my goal to not come in behind the slinky dog. So I kept running (more like jogging) and actually ran (jogged) past the 4 mile marker. It was then that I saw another slinky dog up ahead of me. So, in keeping with my goal, I had to finish in front of that slinky as well. After about a half mile walking break, I took off on my run again. It was still pretty windy but it also started sprinkling. Then at mile 5 there was a downpour. Huge raindrops pretty much soaking me in about a minute. That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was that I went to wipe my eyes and face and one of my contacts got folded up in my eye. Hurt like crazy and was super irritating. I tried to stop and fix it but the rain was making that impossible. So I closed one eye and started to run again- the faster I got to the car the faster I could fix it. Thankfully the rain stopped and through the fog I could see the finish arch. Almost there! I finished in 1 hour, 45 minutes. Under a 17 minutes pace for 6.2 miles. I'm happy with that all things considered :)

Tomorrow is back to the training. I've got to get that under a 16 minute mile for the Disney races, and have a personal goal of 10 minute miles for those. So one step at a time- 2.75 miles in 45 minutes or less :)

Tomorrow

is the Wicked 10k here in VA beach. I'm looking forward to a race- it'll be the first one since my half marathon over Labor Day. We (my husband is running also) went to the race expo today to pick up our race numbers, so now we just wait for tomorrow morning to see what kind of race it will be. Yesterday it was 80 here as a high and today the temperature has dropped to the mid- 50s. Tomorrow it is supposed to be just as chilly with the possibility to be raining as well. That will be a nice challenge for me- I'm not a fan of cold, so to add the rain to it as well....well, let's just say that it's going to be interesting.