I can't believe that I'm through the first 10 weeks of this 30 week training plan. I still haven't made an official decision on doing the marathon training, but am leaning towards it still because...well...why not? I'm starting to feel a bit stronger with my runs (runs were 2,3,2.5, 5.5 miles...but did 6 instead), and this week, I had two runs where I felt like I was flying. For one of my runs, I ran most of the run above a 6.0 pace..even faster than 9:30ish 5K pace, and even touched a 6.8 (8:50ish mile). I also had one run where I briefly touched a 7.3 pace, which is somewhere around 8:15/mile. Holy moses, I was flying! I definitely couldn't hold that later pace for long, but I did it for a chorus or two of one song...just to prove myself that I could. I came off of those runs tired, but SUPER proud of myself!
Since our weather has suddenly turned really cold, I've been taking my runs to the treadmill for the time being, especially with it being super icy outside. We've had a few days with wind chills in the -15 range, so it's really not safe for anyone to be out running in those temperatures. Plus, it makes being outside dangerous with the ice. Also, unfortunately, in my area, many sidewalks are not de-iced, which causes a lot of problems with trying to be out and about. I think I would almost do better getting to where I need to go with my figure skates than anything else. However, unfortunately, the ice isn't thick enough for that to happen.
Knowing that we had some nasty temperatures headed our way, I decided to switch my long run and my last short run of the week, just in case I decided to stay inside. I did end up running both days, but ended up being really glad that I did the long run first. I was scheduled to do 5.5, but felt good enough to do 6, which I did. The hard part about these longer runs is that I HAVE to go slower. On this run, I felt like I was going at a decent speed. Then, I made a mistake at looking at the distance. It was much shorter than I anticipated. Then, I looked at the speed and I was only at about a 4.8, which was WAY slower than I was hoping. I swear, treadmills are the biggest liars sometimes! However, there were times where I did adjust the speed some, depending on what I felt like I could handle, so that speed may have been a "recovery" speed of sorts, but I don't think I went faster than about a 11:30ish pace at tops.
I know that I shouldn't stress over it, as that's probably the speed that I need, but it did mess with my head a bit. However, I did my best to push it out of my head. Then, I realized that I still had some pretty good energy once I hit the 5.5 mile mark, so I decided to push myself just a wee bit further, and finished out strong at 6.0. I actually felt like that I could have ran more if I slowed down the pace a bit, but I didn't want to push myself too much.
As for the 2.5 mile run, I decided to change things up a bit by running incline intervals. I would run "flat" for about two minutes, then run on an medium(ish) incline for about 2 minutes. I actually liked this as it provided a bit of variety on this run, and worked my legs just a bit differently. Plus, there was that mentality of powering through that helped me out mentally ("Come on. You got this. Get your butt up this incline..."). I do have hopes to do at least or two hilly runs outside again somewhere when the weather warms up some, but in the meantime, I'll make due with what I have access to.
As for week 11, it's a set back week in terms of the long distance mileage (only 3 miles), but the other runs are increased to 3 miles a piece. Then, the week after, it's a 6 mile long run, then the miles start going up from there. The good news is that I know that I can do the 6 miles, so I should be able to do it again. If things keep going as a well as they are with this training, you may just see an official announcement of me doing the marathon "for sure." :)
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