Well today couldn't have gone much better. It was beautiful out, compared to where it has been anyways. I ran a nice and easy recovery pace and now feel very refreshed. The run was an easy 5 miler. I figured a slow and straight out and back would be boring, so I ran the Schuykill Banks plus the Kelly Drive one mile out and back.
If it wasn't an easy day, I would've likely dressed with even less than I did. I just had on tights, a light long sleeve shirt and gloves. A harder day and I probably would've just went with shorts on the bottom layer and no gloves. It was such a relief after all the cold.
I warmed up with some strides, high knees and kick butts. I really need to do these drills more. I also need to concentrate on form more during my runs. Lately, with these winds and stuff, I've just been trying to survive the runs. I concluded the workout with 3 hill sprints.
I was cut from work last night and thought about going out for a second run. Wisely, I stayed in. I also considered running this run later in the day after work, but decided to stick with the morning routine.
After two pretty hard days in a row, I need to take it easy. I did just that. When I plugged my 5K time into the McMillan running calculator, it said to do my easy runs no faster than an 8 minute pace. I've been doing them around 7:30 and needed to slow down.
Going slow is really one of the hardest things. I've trained myself to start out slow and around an 8 minute pace, but it hard for me not to pick up the pace as my legs get stronger. That was the case in the 2nd mile today. I ran a fairly fast 7:27. That happened because I passed two female runners though. I hate running behind people, so I needed to blow by them.
Once I got past them, I ran pretty consistent 7:50 miles for the remainder of the run. That makes for a much better recovery than the faster paces I've been doing on my easy days. It's easy to run consistently fast right now, but running consistently slow is more of a struggle. I got the job done though. I didn't even finish hard, as I often do.
After the run, I did some ab workouts as I often do. I added some leg raises to strengthen my hips. My right hip is always the sore one, so I was shocked that working it was much easier than my left hip. It seems like the right one was is much stronger. Maybe it is overcompensating and doing too much work. Either way, I need to strengthen both of them and I'll keep up this workout.
Tomorrow is a rest day before Sunday's long run. Sunday is actually the start of marathon training plan. It's 20 weeks long and will get me to where I need to be to qualify for Boston. I can't wait to tackle it. I feel like I've built a nice bridge to this point. This week was 37 miles of running. My longest week during my first marathon was 40 miles. I will hit that mark in the first week of this plan.
5 miles - 39:08 (7:49 pace)
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