Walking Never Felt So Good

Three people showed up to our running group tonight including me. One of the girls hadn't run since May so we ended up walking the majority of the route. And it felt great. We walked about 3.2 miles, and it felt so nice to just take it easy after working out hard Mon-Weds. So maybe I didn't run, but who cares. I got out there, went the same distance, and met someone new in the process. I call that a success.

8 miles down, 10 to go

I can almost say that I like running again. Not love, but like. We had our second running group yesterday, and it went really well. There were only four of us, but one of the girls pushed us to run faster (she's training to drop time off her 5K pace) and we upped our pace and ended up runing around a 9:45-10:00 minute mile pace, which isn't really fast but it's better than the 10:30 we ran last week. We ran a total of 3.41 miles (according to my Garmin), and it was incredibly humid and hot but still fun to run with people. The second best part was that I got to go home and go back to bed for 2 hours, and I had already finished my run for the day.

Since my Tues/Thurs runs are only between 3-3.5 miles each to make it possible for other people to come, I decided to do a little longer (5 miles) on Wednesday night and throw in some speed training. So tonight I did 5 miles on the treadmill with the intervals below. I normally run between 5.5-5.8 on the treadmill by the way.

Tonight:
Ran 1/2 mile at 5.5
Ran 1 mile at 6.5 (felt great!!!)
Ran 1/2 mile at 5.3
Ran 1 mile at 6.3 (felt great)
Ran 1/2 mile at 5.3
Ran 1/2 mile at 6.0 and 1/2 mile at 6.5 (still felt great)
Ran .1 mile at 6.7, .1 mile at 6.9, .1 mile at 7.1, .1 mile at 7.3, and .1 mile at 7.5.

And you know what? I felt great and wasn't even breathing hard. Two days of running (8 miles) and two left. I'm going to do an easy 3 tomorrow and then try and get it 7-8 on Saturday. If I can run five hard like I did tonight, I think seven or eight easy will be just fine.

Half-marathon here I come :)

When, What, and Where

I started a running group. Too bad I don't have any idea how to lead a running group. I run whenever, wherever, and however long I feel like it. Now I'm going to have to make sure the time, pace, and location fit other people. At least if I setup a time to run with other people, that means I'll have to be there as well. So here goes. Since I actually have something to write about on this blog now, I'm going to use it to keep track of how each meetup goes including how I felt running and if I liked the route or not. Maybe then I'll be able to come back and find ones that I love and run them again.

First run is this Thursday at 6AM meeting at BSM, and it'll be between 3-4 miles.

51 Days to Go

My last post on this blog was on Sunday, June 28th. My last run was on Saturday, June 27th. I went on vacation the week after that and somehow just lost all motivation to run. I looked at my little half-marathon counter and realized I have exactly 51 days left until my next half-marathon. 51=less than 8 weeks. I've never trained for a half-marathon in less than 12 weeks, but not running isn't even an option so I better get moving soon.

I have great intentions and plan out my runs for each week and then somehow I never get them in. I need some motivation. Something more than me telling myself to run every day, something that actually forces me (literally) to get out there and run. I'm working on it but haven't come up with anything yet. What do you do when you don't want to workout? I've got less than 8 weeks, but those 8 weeks are going to be the best 8 weeks of my life- training wise at least. I'm doing it.