Also, my q and shift key on the left are sticking...making typing so difficult. I'm sure it isn't caused at all by the fact that I eat at least one meal a day over the keyboard. I'm sure that's not it at all.
Anyway, briefly, last Saturday at Sawyer Camp was lovely -- perfect run. I kept the 9/mile pace which is what I wanted to and got a nice 12 miles without stopping.
For Tuesday Tempo -- I FINALLY nailed it. RLRF tempo runs are the bane of my existence and it seems like one reason or another I just wasn't able to make them (I'd get the miles but there was nothing tempo involved). But, I pretty much got this one and I was delighted. I was supposed to do 2 miles easy (9.45), 3 miles fast tempo (8.10) and one mile easy. This is what I did:
| 1 | 00:09:49 | 1.00 | 09:49 |
| 2 | 00:09:43 | 1.00 | 09:43 |
| 3 | 00:08:12 | 1.00 | 08:12 |
| 4 | 00:08:13 | 1.00 | 08:13 |
| 5 | 00:08:17 | 1.00 | 08:17 |
| 6 | 00:09:30 | 1.00 | 09:30 |
I needed to slow it down in mile 6 and speed it up in mile 5 but overall this is the closest I've come yet to rocking a tempo (and that's in 17 weeks of the RLRF plan). There might be hope for me yet.
And then today's track intervals were a thing of joy. I'd just upped my paces because of the 10k I ran a few weeks ago and thus was horribly intimidated by the 5x1000 on the schedule (the thing about RLRF is that he does kill you on the Tempo and Interval days). But then I was intimidated by the 2x3200 and it worked out fine so I just figured WTH and went with it. So the goal was for each of the intervals to be run at 4.38. Not spot on but considering I just upped the paces, I was pleased:
1 4.50
2 4.43
3 4.38
4 4.42
5 4.50
I made one and the others weren't too far off -- probably more along the lines of my old paces but it WAS 5.30 in the morning and still dark out so that's my excuse. But I love this run for the symmetry. Pure awesomeness!!! (my nerdy accountant brain is so pleased).
As I'm winding down with my first ever attempt at following a structured training plan I've learned so much about myself, about training, about RLRF, about running, about recovering .... it has been great and I'm ready to go at it again. I guess that is a good thing as this is the fall of the Half Marathon for me. So after Disneyland on Labor Day, I've got six weeks to circle back around for Healdsburg on October 16th. Depending on how I feel, I'll give myself a few days/week to rest and then pick back up with the remaining weeks in RLRF based on that half paces. I'm excited.
However, I have been toying with idea of running San Jose Rock and Roll half on Oct 2nd (4 weeks after Disneyland and 2 weeks before Healdsburg). Our running group split into two groups and some are doing this run and the rest of us were doing Healdsburg. I signed up for Healdsburg as I'd run SJRNR last year (first half!!) so wanted to do something different. But, it has been in the back of my mind that I wanted to run SJRNR again after all because a. it is fun b. I have friends doing it and c. I wanted to see how I'd do in comparison to last year. All this was fine when it stayed in my own head, but then after last Saturday's run my friend asked me if I had considered doing SJRNR too? (that's the one she is running) Oh man -- now it is out there. I fessed up to thinking about it and shared my concerns. I think the sacrifice will be the Healdsburg race -- and that's probably okay really. There is no elevation chart but given where it is, it will be rolling hills so wasn't going to be a fast run anyway -- but just a fun nice day and it will still be that. But SJRNR is flat and fast (as it is billed) and I love the course (mile 11 is right in front of my ex husband's house -- and since we are all good and get along, he was out there cheering and he was sweet about forcing our darling children to do the same (damn teenagers)), we can park at another friends house and it is local. I almost can't think of any reason not to run it.
Other than I will have just run one 4 weeks earlier and will be running one 2 weeks later.
And the fact that I wouldn't even jump into marathon training after running for a year, preferring to wait two, because I wasn't sure I could do it and didn't want to risk injury.
But...what the heck, right? I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in in my life (which is kind of sad in some respects, but hey, I was the most nonathletic kid around and turned into a very nonathletic adult). I know I can run the 13 miles so worst case I bonk and turn it into a training run (and the RLRF says 12 miles for that week so that's good, right?).
What to do? What to do? I've told myself I'll make the final call after Disneyland. I'll wait to see how I feel on Tuesday the 6th.
2 comments:
Great job on the tempo run! I've never actually tried to do a run like that before, sometimes I do them by accident because I start out slower, then get faster as the run goes on.
Not sure what to suggest on the half marathons, maybe do them all? But just don't race all of them all out? I know Healdsburg is a gorgeous half marathon - it goes through the wine country up there. I've wine tasted in that region, I can confirm that there are a lot of rolling hills. But you do get wine and champagne at the end of the race.
I'm a big believer in taking advantage of your fitness and doing the race that gives you the best chance of performing as you want to. And I love doing races as training runs. So I think you should go ahead and do SHRNR as your target race and run the later one for fun.
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