I had gone out dancing last Saturday night and got home around 2:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I was way too tired on Sunday to go for a run, leaving me to make up for it on Monday. I was hoping to go two loops of the Nike running trail, so I blocked out an hour and half. At 11:30, I hit the locker room and changed into my gear. It had been awhile since I ran during the work day, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel. I decided to go nice and slow. Of course, once I started to run, my natural tendency to just run as fast I can set in. Each time I tried to slow down, it felt too slow, and of course, I picked up the pace. After one lap around, I looked at my watch, and a quick calculation told me I was running at about a 9:10 pace. I felt a little winded but thought I could make it another lap. About 5 minutes later, I decided to cut off the loop and onto the trail that cuts across campus. By the time I hit the center of campus, I decided I was done. Running mid-day has never been easy for me, but now that I'm working full-time, it'll just be yet another running challenge to embrace.
Miles: 3
Time: 27:43
Tuesday was scheduled as a track night with my running group, but when I got to the track, there was a kids' event going on. We decided to do our bi-weekly pub run instead, where we run 2.5 miles of hills, then finish at
McMenamins for a drink. When I first started the pub run in the beginning of the summer, I slogged up the hill, huffing and puffing in the last mile. It was still a struggle to get up the hill, but I'm slowly running it with more ease. I've come to embrace hills and sometimes even despise the flats. It's already a short run, but I hope by the end of the summer that route becomes a walk in the park.
Miles: 2.5
Time: 23:38
I had every intention of running on Thursday, but the work day never presented a time to escape. By the time I got home, I was exhausted and actually fell asleep before my daughter went to bed! I never like running the day before my long run, so by Saturday, I was anxious to run. I downed my usual cup of coffee, but instead of getting the bolt of energy to run, I just got jittery. And I was still tired. We started to run, and I just wasn't sure I had it in my heart to run anything longer than 6 miles. Normally, we all talk about how far we're going before we start the run, but this morning was different, and it didn't help my mental preparation in the slightest. But oddly, after half a mile or so, I had a sudden surge, and sped up to catch up with one of the faster women in the group. I checked my watch after the first mile: 9:08. Holy crap! I don't think I've ever gone up that first mile of Forest Park remotely in faster than 9:30, so to shave off 22 seconds more excited and worried me. I continued to chat along, but I could tell I was pushing it. I quickly decided I would trade shorter miles for a faster pace. I knew everyone was going to go at least 8 miles, but I didn't have it in me to go that far, and I wasn't willing to let up on the pace. So after 3 miles, I said good-bye and turned around. Up the hill, I averaged just less than 9-minute miles in 26:51. Since I was running on my own, I knew I had to push myself even more to up achieve negative splits. The downhill would help, but since I had been averaging 9:10/9:15 the last few weeks, I thought holding at sub-9 would be challenging enough. By the time I got to the bottom, I was exhausted, but I was quite satisfied with my effort. I averaged 8:05 on the way down, with an overall time of 51:06. This was on par with my best 10k time. For the first time in the last couple of months, I was starting to think again that it would be possible to run sub-9 in Hood to Coast. With only 4 weeks left to go, it will require some work, but I might have a shot at pulling it off!
Miles: 6
Time: 51:06
I recently decided that running back to back mornings on the weekends, not only trains my body to recover quickly (good for H2C!), but it also gives me one less run to try to fit in during the week (trying to run 3-4 times a week). Still on a runner's high from my run yesterday, I decided to go for another tempo run on Fairmount Loop. I know you're supposed to have alternate hard runs with easy ones, but I just couldn't do it. My mind wanted to go fast, so I let my legs follow. I knew that 31:30 would be a 9:00 pace, but I really wanted to get closer to 30:00, almost a 8:30 pace. So I pushed myself. When I got to an uphill, I pumped my arms up and let up on slightly. In the end, I was nowhere near 30 minutes, but I still run the loop with my best time yet. And considering that I was a bit sore from yesterday's run, I felt pretty good overall. As I said to my husband today, it's weird how a year ago, 9-min miles seemed fast to me, but now, I'd ideally like to be closer to 8-minutes. I'm hoping by the end of the year, I will run the loop in 30 minutes flat...or less...
Miles: 3.5
Time: 31:17
All in all, I had a pretty good week. This coming week I hope to have a good track workout, but then take it easy (if my mind lets me) on Thursday. And on Saturday, I promised my friend Sonja that I would run with her for 8 miles. So either I slow it down a bit, or I make her push through the pain with me! :)