Same Time, Same Channel

This was intervals on a treadmill. I'm taking it a little easy this week resting up for a half marathon this Saturday.

I ran this at a faster pace that I've been running. My average pace was 9:16/mi.

Thanks to all those who commented and encouraged me.

I got really tired around mile 11, but I was running with a friend and she kept me going. According to my GPS thing, my average pace was 9:38, but I'm sure my official pace will be a little slower because my GPS thing said 13.2 miles, not 13.1. I don't have official results yet.

Right now I'm questioning my goal to run a marathon, but maybe I'll feel better in a while. It's kind of like you don't want to have another baby right after you've given birth, but then later you do (unless you're too old like me).

I got the official results. They are here.

The time I measured held up. The official results say 02:07:00.1. As I expected, they've got my pace at 9:42, due to the difference in my distance measurement. It's all good though. I figure it's not too bad for a 39 year old woman running her first half marathon, especially since I had minor surgery a little over 5 weeks ago, and that knocked 2 1/2 weeks out of my training not long before the race.

I tried to do a tempo run today, though I'm really just learning about different kinds of runs, such as tempo runs.

I set my Garmin to do auto laps every mile. Here are my split times:

Mile 1 - 9:33/mile

Mile 2 - 9:02/mile

Mile 3 - 8:54/mile

My average pace for the whole run was 9:05. That's the fastest I've ever run 5K, so I feel pretty good about it.

Also, I got new shoes last night. Saucony something. I don't know the specific name.

I almost didnt' run this morning. It was cold and rainy and my left hip was hurting, but I told myself "no excuses" and went out anyway. I did an easy 4 miles, average pace 9:34. I was pretty wet by the time I was done.

My hip didn't hurt while I was running and feels okay now. Maybe that's because of the 800 mg of ibuprofen I took before the run, or maybe running helps. I've had trouble with this hip off and on since my surgery at the beginning of July. It was doing okay recently, but I think that yoga on Wednesday threw it out.

It was running harder today than yesterday and I didn't want to get all wet again, so I ran on a treadmill. I set it on random so that the incline changed frequently. I've never done on that on the treadmill before and so I didn't know what level to set it at. I probably guessed a little high because I was sweating like crazy and my heart rate was really high by the end of 5 miles, so I stopped there instead of doing the 6 miles that I had planned.

I got out a little earlier than I had been thanks to the start of early morning seminary. I got dressed for running, drove my son to seminary, and then came home and ran. I ran my standard 4 mile course. I started slow, then tried to do a little fartlek with 4 relatively short stretches of faster running separated by a significant cooldown of slower running. It's hard for me to do speedwork because almost always start and end my runs at my house and the area where I live is very hilly, not to mention that it's at an altitude of about 5800 ft.

In any case, here are my stats for this morning:

Mile 1 - 10:13

Mile 2 - 9:30

Mile 3 - 9:00

Mile 4 - 9:29

Average pace: 9:33

A slow run this morning. I've been running 4 days/week and the addition of a Tuesday run ups me to 5 days/week, so I took this one easy and focused the whole time on keeping my breathing at a 3/2 rhythmn rather than worrying about my pace. My average pace was 10:11. My splits were 10:22, 10:12, and 9:57.

Yesterday I used the McMillan Running Calculator to figure out what paces I should be training at. I decided to do a tempo run today with 1 mile of warm up and then 3 miles at tempo pace. According to the McMillan Running Calculator, my target pace for an easy run is 10:44 to 11:14, so I tried to do the first mile at that pace. My target pace for a tempo run is 9:18 to 9:42, so I tried to do the 3 tempo miles at that pace. I hit my targets. Here are my split times:

Mile 1 - 11:09

Mile 2 - 9:36

Mile 3 - 9:30

Mile 4 - 9:22

In order to "mix it up" a little, I ran my regular four mile route backwards. That's not to say that I ran backwards, of course. I tried to go slow. I find that I have a hard time keeping my pace steady. I kept having to look at my watch and make adjustments to my pace. Also, it was windy and I often felt like I was running into the wind, especially when I was going up hill.

This doing more distance at a slower speed is going to take a lot more of my time. I'm going to have to figure out how to fit it in my day. I guess I'll have to start running before the kid goes to early morning seminary instead of after I drop him off. I don't think I can run early enough to be done before he needs a ride to seminary. That means I'll have to talk my husband in to getting up and driving him to seminary.

Split times for this run:

Mile 1 - 11:16

Mile 2 - 11:13

Mile 3 - 10:53

Mile 4 - 10:54

Long run at easy pace. Average pace was 10:40. I had to get up early to do this because of other commitments today, but the up side of that was that it was shady for most of the run.

Split times (1 mile each): 10:58, 10:56, 10:40, 10:30, 10:30, 10:35, 11:00, 10:36, 10:23, 10:32

Mile seven was slower because it had a hill that was fairly steep and about a half mile long. I've read that you can substitute a hilly run for a speed workout, but all of my runs are hilly.

Easy run. It was shady but kind of windy this morning. My left hip was sore all day yesterday and was sore before I started running, but then it loosed up and felt fine during the run. Maybe my new shoes are causing the problem. I wore my old shoes on this morning's run. I hope I can get the new shoes broken in sufficiently so that I can wear them without problems. I think I'll try them tomorrow on a short (about 3mile) run.

Average pace today: 11:07

Split times: 11:36, 11:14, 11:15, 10:39, 10:53

I'm going to take it easy this week because I have a 10 mile race next Monday.

We had some relatives stay over last night on their way to Utah from Texas and so my sister-in-law and my niece who is about to start at BYU ran with me this morning. They are both much faster runners than I am. They would get lost if I didn't stay with them so I had to run faster than I had intended to run today. I'm sure it was still much slower than they would have liked to have gone. Average pace was 9:20. I know that's not very fast for most people on these blogs, but it's fast for me.

Mile 1 - 9:56

Mile 2 - 9:23

Mile 3 - 8:45

0.15 - 8:48

I'll have to do a slow recovery run tomorrow.

I wore the new shoes and my hip didn't bother me, but the blisters came back. Maybe I'll try moleskin on the blisters. I could try to take the shoes back, but I think I may have put too many miles on them already.

I went to the runners store last night and took my new shoes back. I tried on a bunch of other shoes and I ended up trading them for a similar shoe (the Omni 6 instead of the Omni 7), but a half size bigger and in a wide width. They want me to try the new shoes on a treadmill instead of outside in case they didn't work and I wanted to bring them back again.

So after I dropped my son of at seminary this morning I came in to work and ran on the treadmill in the fitness center we have here. I did all 5 miles at about a 10:55 pace.

The new shoes seem to be working better than the previous new shoes did. The blisters seem better, not worse, after this morning's run.

I've got yoga class this afternoon.

I only intended to run 5 miles today, but I misremembered the beginning of the route I had planned and ended up going a little farther.

I was really sluggish at the first, but then was able to pick up the pace later.

I was running along in the 4th mile and my cell phone, which was in the pocket of my water belt, rang. I've never had it ring during a run before, at least not that I noticed. So I got it out and answered it and had a brief conversation with my son without stopping running. It was maybe a little dangerous because I was on the shoulder of a fairly busy street, but oh well.

Average pace was 10:37. Here are my splits:

mile 1 - 11:08

mile 2 - 11:02

mile 3 - 11:16 (there was a very long uphill in this mile)

mile 4 - 10:04 (the corresponding downhill was in this mile)

mile 5 - 10:04

0.53 - 9:45

On Thursday I mapped out a 5 mile route on map my run. I intended to run that route on Friday (yesterday) but misremembered the beginning and did a different route that was slightly longer. I thought I remembered it and intended to do it today, but this time I couldn't really remember it either, so I had to improvise. Oh well. I got the distance in.

I was pretty tired and I've got a race on Monday, so I tried to take it easy. However, I ran about the last half mile at the pace I want to run the race so that I could remind myself what that pace feels like.

Average pace: 10:22

Splits: 10:55, 10:31, 10:02, 10:21, 10:09 + 0.14 @ 9.27

Saucony Omni 6: 10.14 miles