Loop de Loops

I didn't really want to go for a run last night. I thought about skipping a workout all together, but then my husband said he'd go with me. We decided to do the same loop I did on Monday except he'd do one loop and I'd do at least two. That would give him about a mile and a half and I'd get in at least three.

So, we leashed up the dog and went out for a family run. Jason was running faster than me. When he was running anyway. The outing didn't go so well for him. He was feeling dehydrated, his chest was hurting, and then his shoulder started hurting. I was sort of struggling, too. When he would stop to walk I would keep running and just circle back to catch up with him. It felt a lot hotter than it did on Monday and, well, I just wasn't really feeling the run. Even though I was running slower than Monday it still felt hard. At least I ran negative splits!

I think some of it had to do with the fact that I was ravenous when I got home from work last night. I find that how good I feel on my run is very dependent on how many calories I've had prior to lacing up my shoes. I still haven't figured out the perfect amount, though.

Anyway, I ended up taking the dog and finishing up the first loop while Jason walked home after a little less than a mile. I dropped off the dog and headed back out for my second loop. Part way through it, though, I decided to mix it up. My neighborhood is laid out entirely in a grid pattern so that made it easy to run up and down streets without getting lost. Also, I kind of wanted to avoid the old men I ran past during the first loop. They seemed a little too over-eager to say hi to a girl running in a skirt and tank top.

Overall, I did just under 3.5 miles. I admit, I was kind of hoping for 5, but whatever.

I did see some fun things, though. Like fire hydrants laying along side the road waiting to be installed. I'd never seen a fire hydrant that wasn't sticking up out of the ground. I almost went back to take a picture of them but, well, I was hungry for dinner.

I think my next goal is going to be to run up and down every street in my neighborhood at least once in the same run. I wonder how many miles that is....

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 620 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 07/29/09 Up/Downhill: [+13/-13] Time: 06:30 PM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   74 F temp; 44% humidity   74 F heat index; winds E 8 Performance Distance: 3.44 miles Time: 0:34:18 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 9' 58 /mi Calories: 403 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 48 +0' 50 5.5 -0.5 +3 ft 2 9' 49 -0' 09 6.1 +0.1 -3 ft 3 9' 37 -0' 21 6.2 +0.2 0 ft end 9' 13 -0' 45 6.5 +0.5 0 ft Versus average of 9' 58 min/mile

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A Couple Miles

Last night was a lovely night for running. However, I only had an easy two-miler on the books since tonight is race night. Just a few easy miles to keep me not too stale.

I invited Jason to come with me. He's technically in week 2 of the Couch to 5K program. In typical husband fashion, however, he felt that the program was too slow, too complicated, too untested. How could it possibly work? I tried to tell him that many, many, MANY people have used the Couch to 5K program to start running and that I even used a modified version of it when I started. But, in the end, I let him choose the pace and the run/walk intervals on Wednesday evening's run.

After a few false starts (thanks Trinka Deu) we did a 5 minute warm-up walk and then did a few sets of 2 minutes running with 90 seconds of walking. We started out doing between 9:00 and 9:30 minutes per mile. That was a little fast for my easy two miles, but, hey, I was letting the husband guy set the pace. Shortly after the halfway point he declared that we should switch to 2 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. I also stated we should slow down the pace a little bit. How about to what you ran on the treadmill last week? 6.0 MPH? Okay, let's aim for 10:00 minutes per mile.

It was good practice for me to attempt to help someone hold pace. I actually manged it for a short period of time. Go me!

On the way home we stopped at the dog park to let Trinka Deu socialize and then ran the rest of the way home.

Yep, we got in 2 miles at an average 11:37 minutes per mile. See, nice and easy! I think this also counts as a "heat" workout, too, since the air temperature was a lovely 83^oF.

And, by the time you read this, I'll be putting in a full day of work and then suiting up to run the Chase Corporate Challenge. If you'll be there, look for the girl in black shorts with a white stripe on the sides, a navy blue t-shirt, and a white visor hanging around the G6 tent. If you won't be there, think of me at 7:10 PM Central Time. That's race start. Also, I've decided the following:

A Goal: Under 31 minutes (that's an 8:51 minute per mile pace)
B Goal: 31:30 minutes (that's a 9:00 pace)
C Goal: Under 35 minutes (10:00 pace)

Since there will be 20,000 or so runners (many of which may have never run a race before), I expect I will be dodging people the entire time. Plus, it does not appear that this race is chip timed! I read something about how we have to note and report our own race time? So, in all honesty, I'd be perfectly happy with Goal C. But I'm still going to try for A! And I'll go by whatever my Garmin says for my time. Sound good?

Training Round 2

Just a quick little post about Monday evening's run. Monday was the start of training for the Napa-to-Sonoma Half Marathon. Holly developed a training plan for both of us.

Here's this week's workouts:


Click to see it larger

So last night was an easy 3 miles. However, I'd been nursing a headache and exhaustion all day. My boss even wanted to send me home early because I looked so ashen. Too bad I had an important afternoon meeting!

Anyway, when I got home I wasn't really feeling a 3 mile run. But, guess what? Jason (the husband guy) decided that this was the night he would start the Couch to 5K running plan! We'd bought him shoes and shorts earlier but he hadn't put them to good use yet.

So, he loaded the Couch to 5K Podcast onto his iPhone and off we went. Together we did 2.15 miles alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking and a 5 minute warm-up and cool-down for a total of 30 minutes. Jason did great! I think he's in better shape than he thought.

Once we finished the Couch to 5K workout, I ran the last .85 miles on my own to make it an even three. Overall, for the entire 3 miles I averaged an 11:41 minute/mile pace. Obviously not quite the workout I would have gotten on my own, but it was fun to run with the hubby (and the dog) and I think the very easy run was just what my body needed. I felt much better afterward.

And check out our stats!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 622 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 05/11/09 Up/Downhill: [+36/-36] Time: 06:02 PM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0   Weather: A Few Clouds   58 F temp; 43% humidity   58 F heat index; winds E 10 Performance Distance: 3.00 miles Time: 0:35:04 Speed: 5.1 mph Pace: 11' 41 /mi Calories: 275 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 54 +1' 13 4.7 -0.5 +4 ft 2 11' 47 +0' 06 5.1 -0.0 -4 ft 3 10' 08 -1' 33 5.9 +0.8 0 ft end 9' 10 -2' 31 6.5 +1.4 0 ft Versus average of 11' 41 min/mile

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