I am super excited (and nervous) to race this weekend in the Capitola Surfer’s Path 1/2 Marathon. Yes, nervous, very very nervous.
I haven’t run as many long runs as I’d hoped. I’ve barely broken the 10k mark on a few occasions, and only one run over 7 miles.
There was a dip in my mileage the week I went to New York, but overall I’m fairly happy with my training. After this, I am going to focus on endurance, speed, and shorter distances!
Oh and I added to my shoe collection. The teal ones are going back. The Glycerin just isn’t the right shoe for me, I am sticking with Ghost! Now I have a replacement pair of Ghost 5’s and a new pair of Ghost 6’s!
I finally feel like I am getting back into running and a regular training schedule. Last year was so hectic with surgery, illness, travel, etc, and I never felt like I was able to properly train for my races.
As you can see from the chart, I had a big spike in mileage last week. 🙂 Gotta start building up a mileage base to be ready for my half marathon in May. It feels good, or least it did, until my knee started to hurt.
I’m hoping that I can slowly ramp up the mileage in such a way that minimizes the aggravation to my knee. We’ll see how it goes.
In addition to running 4 times this week, I also did McMillan’s core routine and went to hot yoga! I’m not sure how I feel about Bikram yoga yet. Look for a post about that coming soon!
I recently came across this article online “Focus On The Right Metrics” over at runnersconnect.net. The main focus of the article is that runners shouldn’t focus on the pace of their easy runs, and should instead focus on “executing the purpose of the workout and completing it to the best of your ability.”
I’ve never really thought about it much before, and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Do I obsess over the pace of my easy runs? Do I consider myself better/faster/fitter if I’m running my easy runs faster? Am I actually better/faster/fitter if I’m running my easy runs (but not my other training workouts) faster?
You know what? I think I DO think of myself as faster if I’m doing my easy runs faster. Yet, I can’t do the tempo runs or the sprints any faster. The author of the article kindly points out that running the easy runs faster is NOT actually better for training. In fact, running them too fast is probably BAD for training, because the purpose of the easy runs is for recovery and if I am pushing it too much, then I’m not recovering, right?
I’m sort of obsessed with my pace and all stats. I run often on the treadmill at home, and I can’t keep my eyes off the time/distance for more than 10-15 seconds. Even when I run outside, I have my GPS app giving me my stats every minute. Yes, every single freaking MINUTE. Once, I actually posted a photo (below) on Instagram of my treadmill display.
I think I need to start running “naked” (this means no GPS, and yes, there will be clothes) a few times a month and just relax.
QOTD – do you worry about pace on your easy runs? Any runs? Do you ever run “naked”?
Being injured really sucks. I’ve been unhappy with the progress, and had a follow-up with my orthopedic doctor last week, and he had me get an MRI. Now, I just have to wait for the results.
Honestly, I would love to run 50+ miles a month, but I just can’t right now. One of the few good things right now is that my knee does seem to be getting better. I don’t know if it’s the physical therapy, the exercises and stretching program, or the time off from running last month.
In July, I ran absolutely 0 miles, and in August, only 16. In September, that number will be about 35. I’ve done 32 so far, and I have a 5k training run planned for tomorrow morning. I should probably just be happy that I was able to put in as many miles as I did this month. My average distance has also gone up from 2.3 miles last month to 4 miles this month. Of course, running a 1/2 marathon does sort of skew things.
Despite being injured, I did run two races this month. The Disneyland 1/2 (which I should have skipped because my knee) and the Color Me Rad 5k. The concept of the Color Me Rad runs are interesting, but I don’t know if I would run more than one of these types of runs per year. It’s a fun run where you are bombarded with colored corn starch. It’s loosely based on the Hindu Festival of Colors, which is also known as Holi.
What are your thoughts on fun runs? Like? Dislike?
Here’s a picture of me and Kimmy getting blasted by pink color!
