Freezing, schmeezing...

Could not face the treadmill in today's 30 degree weather...had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket (I turn 25 this week--again!)...so today I bought...

UNDERARMOR! A shirt & a pair o'tights!

And here's what I did, in the dark, 30 degrees.
4.00 Miles
53:42
13:25 / M

Was only going to do 2 miles, but just sort of kept going. Needed to post some points for my VRAA team, since I'm the lowest point-getter on my team (when it takes nearly an hour to run 4 miles, well, let's just say the points don't rack up that quickly).

Love the UA running clothes. Watch out, cold!

Cold...not a fan

2.25 Miles
30:06
13:22 / M
Temp: 35

Ok, not freezing, but I'm just not a fan of sub-40 temps. 2 1/4 miles is all I could muster, but yippee, it's 2 1/4 more miles than I would have done sitting here:-)

Going out tonight ALONE (WOO HOO) to see Spirit of the Marathon, I'm so excited!

Midweek Gift Run

Found myself out of school just after 3 today after attending a late-day meeting at a different school. So I couldn't stay after to do work. So I found myself HOME AT 3:15! Here's what I did with my extra hour:-)

3.62 miles
46:49 (12:55/mile)
Temp: 75 Humidity: 52%
Labored run. Grrr
R10/W1, R9/W1, R9/W1.5, R8.5/W1.5

Took a lot of effort, could be because I'm getting over complete laryngitis, I mean NO VOICE for three days (had a cold then went to Rutgers game and yelled away what little voice I had Thursday night--great game, so worth it, could be our last amazin' game, but I digress....). It seemed super humid, what with my high HR the whole way. And grrr, Garmin didn't kick in for about 12 min, annoying. But the weather was beautiful, loved seeing folks' Halloween decorations in the daytime, and it was good to come out of my cold/laryngitis stupor and just get out there:-)


Less than 4 wks to the Philly HM!

Morning midweek, wow

Got to run in the morning since I'm off this week. It was cold (37) but beautiful!

2.80 miles
34:02 (12:09/mile)

I did my usual R10/W1, but did not take the last walk break at the 30:00 mark. I ran an extra four minutes to simulate what it might be like to try to complete the race, fatigued, with the finish line in sight.

Peace out.

Slump?

First run today in a week. It was fine.

3.11 miles
35:24 (11:22/mile)

That is a 5K PR for me by a minute, so that's cool.

Now the slump part of the post. I am having what the French might refer to as a crise de confiance. I am increasingly aware that 13.1 miles is far. Really far. And after sickness and lots of stress at school, as well as the recent cold weather which makes me SO not want to run in the dark and cold (can't run during the day often), I bagged my midweek 30 minute runs two weeks in a row. All of them. So I am putting all the pressure on my weekend run. This is dysfunctional, and I know it-I am, in essence, telling myself I can't do it (due to weather, illness, stress, darkness, whatever), not doing it, and as a result, I am basically sabotaging my April 29 HM. Maybe I've bit off more than I can chew. I am actually entertaining the thought of convincing my SIL (an 8 minute miler who is parallel training for this HM with me, but we don't run together due to schedules and, well, I'd drag her way the heck down) to find a 3rd person and do a marathon relay (with legs of 5 and 8 miles, both of which I know I could do). But I feel like that would be a cop out. Ugh.

My current longest run to date is 8.3 miles on 1/13, a month ago. I stuck with R9/W1 the whole way on that, and I was tired and sore after, but I made it. That was back when winter here in Jersey was 54, the good old days.

I think I will stick by this HM lunacy. I will force myself on the dreadmill if I must (and with snow in the forecast this week, I suspect I must). But I have hit a motivational slump, that I will have to work through. I can't survive a HM on one weekend run a week.

Back again

First run since stomach virus invaded our whole house. What a week.

6.70 miles
1:19:48 (11:54/mile)
25 degrees, windy, but beautiful

I warmed up for five min on the treadmill before setting out. Ran a mile+ to the track, ran 4 miles there, and a mile+ back. The track had snow & ice on it. Today, I alternated directions to remember what mile I was on, that kept things a little more interesting. Felt pretty good, especially after being out of commission for a week. Knee actually started talking to me (NOT hurting, just making its presence known).

Here is the approx. pace per mile breakdown:
Mile 1 - 11:42/mile
Mile 2 - 11:52/mile
Mile 3 - 11:43/mile
Mile 4 - 12:16/mile
Mile 5 - 11:10/mile (I was trying to finish 5 miles under an hour)
Mile 6+ - 12:34/mile

I am a little disappointed, I was supposed to do 9 miles today, but it was cold, I was rusty, the knee was talking, and nature was calling, so I bagged the last 2.3 miles. Ugh. The HM is still 3 months away, I am not going to freak out just yet. Life happens. It is a little frustrating that I make a little progress (see previous entry, my 1 mile time trial of 9:23--improvement from 9:43 3 months ago) then have a setback. Grr.

I did just run nearly 7 miles, wow.

Now my family is taking me out for my birthday, which got lost in the lunacy of the week. I am 25. Again. ;-)