A Year of Breaking Boundaries

This is the year I'm going to do it. I'm going to run a marathon. I'm going to learn to like running. I'm going to get into a routine and stick to it. I'm going to weight train and tone my arms. I'm going to be proud of my body and want to flaunt it (I won't, but I'll want to). I can feel it. This is going to be that year.

Happy birthday self. Let's make this year a good one. No hitting walls, no turning back. Just going, moving, and doing.

My First 5K

My friends and I are going to run a 5K in October. I'm kind of excited to run with other people and just for fun. Then I'll have run most of the normal races that people run before a half-marathon. The only one left is the marathon and that's coming next year. Sounds like an eventful year.

I've Got to Get Faster

I just looked at my second half-marathon time and realized that I am getting much slower...never a good thing. My goal for Baltimore (well maybe not Baltimore) is to get back under 2:20. Here's where I started and where I'm at now.

• Athens, OH half-marathon at around a 2:10 pace.
• Death Valley Half-marathon: 2:13
• Boise: 2:18
• Nashville: 2:32
• Iowa: 2:25:37

Not sure what happened, but I've definitely gotten slower. My goal for Baltimore is under 2:20. I ran nine this weekend in 1:37, which is about a 10:45 mile pace and that includes running the first mile at a 12-minute mile pace. So that means running about a 10:30 pace for the entire thing. It's supposedly a hilly race though so who knows. Maybe running faster will be the goal for my next race since Baltimore is only three weeks away.

Two Weeks To Go

Half-marathon #5 is two weeks from today. Not having run for two weeks, I've got a tough two weeks ahead of me. But I'll make it. I always do. So here's the plan for the next two weeks.

Monday- cross-training (I'm playing volleyball with friends for a couple of hours)
Tuesday- 5 mile run easy
Wednesday- 5 mile interval training
Thursday- 5 mile run easy
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 10 mile run easy (this is the biggie, I've penciled it in and have to get it in)
Sunday- Rest

Monday- Cross-training
Tuesday- 5 mile run easy
Wednesday- 3 mile tempo run (just faster than my normal pace)
Thursday- 3 mile easy
Friday-Saturday- Rest
Sunday- Half-marathon

I've got my stickers ready.

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.