Workouts - June 1, 2015 - June is going to be the month!
Good morning! I had a great week with some interesting workouts.
Okay, here are the rest of the workouts...
May 25 - May 31
Monday: 4 relaxed miles outdoors, traveling in hilly Virginia, 10:14 pace
Tuesday: Rest, drove 12 hours home from Virginia
Wednesday: 5.1 miles on my favorite hometown loop, 9:39 pace
Thursday: hit the gym for lower body weights, then surprised myself by feeling like 4.2 miles on the treadmill, 9:14 pace
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 8.5 miles outdoors with the Track Club, 9:57 pace (more like 10:15 with the water stops)
Sunday: An hour on the stationary bike trainer, trying some heart rate intervals
I log everything on Strava, even the weight workouts, because I have been using my new TomTom Cardio watch as a heart rate monitor every time I exercise. Some observations: 1) nothing gets your heart rate up like running, absolutely no substitute, 2) heat and humidity cause heart rate to be elevated and erratic, duh, 3) I am to the point where I can absolutely feel myself cross my anaerobic threshold. Like clockwork, I get that failing/gasping feeling and look down to see "180" on my wrist.
On that note, it has been a real struggle to stay out of the anaerobic zones on my runs lately. It's partly the heat, partly due to my lack of running-specific conditioning since being injured. My ego has suffered at moments. Most notably, I had to walk some hills while running a very crowded path. And on Saturday's run, I had to gasp to a friend, "I need to slow down, see you later."
All I can do is set little goals for myself with each run (silly, injured-person stuff like "I am going to run at least three miles" or "I will not walk during this lap"). Other than those small goals, I try to focus on the big picture and ignore the more painful little moments. A month ago, I was desperate to be able to run a hill, ANY HILL, much less a series of steep hills at a particular pace. My mileage for May was roughly twice that for April. That kind of thing. And of course, NO LEG PAIN AT ALL, WOOHOO! That is huge.
I have an eight-ish-mile trail race coming up on July 4, and right now I am planning to run it, though not necessarily "race."
That's it for the workouts stuff. As of today, I have started working as an ambassador for the Birmingham Track Club, so I'll be posting a lot more about our summer races, training runs, and social events. I will also do some travel posts for Charleston, South Carolina and D.C. during the week.
 |
| With my Track Club friends, Jenny and Michelle, before our nine-mile run on Saturday. Jenny is a med student who trained for and ran her first marathon the same time as me. Michelle is a Track Club OG and race director who knows every street in town. During the run, these ladies smoked me of course, but I absolutely can't imagine an early weekend long run without Track Club camaraderie and our awesome water stops. |
 |
| And here's the whole group. Our president Alex made us pose for a new group photo now that everyone's in summer clothing. I'm serious...NO OTHER group of people would show up at 5:45 am on a summer Saturday to run mileage in 98% humidity. I love these guys. (I'm trying to hide near the middle in my black baseball cap.) |
Okay, here are the rest of the workouts...
May 25 - May 31
Monday: 4 relaxed miles outdoors, traveling in hilly Virginia, 10:14 pace
Tuesday: Rest, drove 12 hours home from Virginia
Wednesday: 5.1 miles on my favorite hometown loop, 9:39 pace
Thursday: hit the gym for lower body weights, then surprised myself by feeling like 4.2 miles on the treadmill, 9:14 pace
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 8.5 miles outdoors with the Track Club, 9:57 pace (more like 10:15 with the water stops)
Sunday: An hour on the stationary bike trainer, trying some heart rate intervals
I log everything on Strava, even the weight workouts, because I have been using my new TomTom Cardio watch as a heart rate monitor every time I exercise. Some observations: 1) nothing gets your heart rate up like running, absolutely no substitute, 2) heat and humidity cause heart rate to be elevated and erratic, duh, 3) I am to the point where I can absolutely feel myself cross my anaerobic threshold. Like clockwork, I get that failing/gasping feeling and look down to see "180" on my wrist.
On that note, it has been a real struggle to stay out of the anaerobic zones on my runs lately. It's partly the heat, partly due to my lack of running-specific conditioning since being injured. My ego has suffered at moments. Most notably, I had to walk some hills while running a very crowded path. And on Saturday's run, I had to gasp to a friend, "I need to slow down, see you later."
All I can do is set little goals for myself with each run (silly, injured-person stuff like "I am going to run at least three miles" or "I will not walk during this lap"). Other than those small goals, I try to focus on the big picture and ignore the more painful little moments. A month ago, I was desperate to be able to run a hill, ANY HILL, much less a series of steep hills at a particular pace. My mileage for May was roughly twice that for April. That kind of thing. And of course, NO LEG PAIN AT ALL, WOOHOO! That is huge.
I have an eight-ish-mile trail race coming up on July 4, and right now I am planning to run it, though not necessarily "race."
That's it for the workouts stuff. As of today, I have started working as an ambassador for the Birmingham Track Club, so I'll be posting a lot more about our summer races, training runs, and social events. I will also do some travel posts for Charleston, South Carolina and D.C. during the week.
Comments