Week 9 Training Recap

Since I am moving tomorrow I ran my long run this morning. Thankfully this is a recovery week so my long run was 4miles and I was able to squeeze it in before work. Having completely this run means that training week 9 is complete and I can recap it for you today. J

I had four runs on the schedule this week; the Alamo City Beer Challenge #3 10K, intervals, hills, and a four miler.

This week was a really good week for me running-wise. I am actually seeing progress (I think having the Garmin helps because it gives me my mile times) and I am feeling more confident in my running. It makes me very happy to be progressing and it makes me very excited for the two big challenges I have in the next six months; the half and the full marathon.

Sunday 09/09/2012: Alamo City Beer Challenge #3- Mission Possible 10K

The morning of this run started off a little rough. My shorts kept riding up when I walked. We forgot the bug spray, which is a must when running along the river during a West Nile outbreak. I was wearing a new hat which was too big, sat too low on my ears and ended up giving me a nasty headache. I was kind of a mess and was kind of expecting this run to suck.  

Thankfully once I started running none of those ‘problems’ seemed to matter. Well, except for the headache. That was kind of annoying.

I was pretty pleased with my time and pace. This was my first official 10K  (I have ran the distance before but not in an actual race) so I didn’t set any time goals. All I wanted to do was finish and have fun doing it.

Oh, and I should add that Paul also ran the 10K. He hurt his ankle earlier in the week and told me on the morning of that he was going to just jog it. Take it easy. Well, mister-I’m-just-gonna-take-it-easy passed me when I was at mile 2.5 and he was at 4-ish. I gave him a sideways glance and screamed ‘yeah, you’re going really slow’ and laughed. He finished in 51:40, second in his age group. What a rock star.  He won a beer mug. How fitting...

My official time was 01:11:15- woot woot!

Tuesday 09/11/2012: Interval A routine

This interval routine is 5 minute warm-up, intervals; 1 min fast/ 2 min recover x6, 5 minute cool down

What I noticed this week was that my overall mileage was less, my recovery was at a slower pace (I think I walked for each one) but my fast was faster.

Thursday 09/13/2012: Hill A routine

Since the only hilly part on post is currently under construction I have to settle on doing hills on the treadmill. It’s better than nothing, right?

I did 36 minutes of a pre-set hill program on the treadmill at the gym. It’s called ‘Around the World’ which is just hill after hill at various inclines. I think lowest was .7% and highest was 4.3%. I set my pace at 5.2 mph and kept it there the entire time. That’s the one nice thing about a treadmill; it allows you to maintain a set pace easily.

I will be moving into my new apartment this weekend. The surrounding neighborhood is pretty hilly so I am thankful that now I will be able to do my hill work on the roads instead of the treadmill.

Friday 09/14/2012: 4 Mile Long Run

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. I had two options; go back to bed or go to the gym to get my 4 miles in. I opted for the gym even though you know how I feel about that dang treadmill.

Earlier this week I was talking with Tricia at my Thai Yoga therapy session about running. She too is training for a half marathon. During a discussion about pace she said that she thought I could probably run a sub-10 minute mile. So since I had the ‘opportunity’ to be on a machine that would set my pace I decided to see if I could.

And I did.

Two of them, actually.

Does that count if I did it on a treadmill?

Well, since I proved to myself that I could do it on a treadmill I will attempt to do it on the road this weekend when I run Dani’s Birthday 5K. My treadmill 5K time this morning was 31:48 so I will try to see if I can do that off the treadmill, too.

My mile times this morning were:

Mile 1: 9:31

Mile 2: 11:09

Mile 3: 10:31

Mile 4: 9:49

Not too shabby, if you ask me J

I am very happy with how week 9 went. No complaints here.

Let’s see what week 10 has in store…

Sunday 09/16/2012: Dani’s Birthday 5K which I will be participating in virtually. Wish I could be in MA for this!

Tuesday 09/18/2012: Interval A routine

Thursday 09/20/2012: Tempo A routine (3 miles)

Saturday 09/22/2012: 7 Mile long run (previous 7 mile time 01:25:01)

Not sure what cross training I will get in this week. Things will still be pretty hectic because of the move. Unpacking counts as cross training, right?

Goal for this week: complete all four training runs, unpack and make at least a few meals at home. Wish me luck!

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it."  ~ Oprah Winfrey