5 miles - we meet again.

I have been in such a bad place this month.  I have a tendency to get the January blues.  Combine that with some other stuff and...well...it just hasn't been pretty.  Just about everything has been suffering...well except for my food.  I have that under control, thankfully. 

Running has been harder than I had hoped.  I know I had my grand idea of going all fast forward through the C25K, but when I really started diving into it...well...it sounded like a better idea than the actuality of it.  I just can't do a 60-sec run followed by a 90-sec walk.  I mean I can do it, but it's too basic for me at this point in the game.  What the whole grand idea taught me, however, is that I need to go back to my intervals.  I had to swallow my pride for this.  It sounds stupid, but it truly was...no...is a struggle for me.  Endurance versus speed.  Is it better to be able to go longer without stopping/walking or is it better to be faster?  Post injury, however, it's been kind of a moot point.  I no longer have my endurance.  I did 3 runs at 2 miles a run and after each run I felt like I had hit my capacity.  Then I stopped running (for 2 1/2 weeks) out of frustration and depression.  That will teach me. 

I told myself that I had to do 5 miles on Saturday.  If I did not, I would be so far behind my half marathon training with no hopes of catching up.  I sucked it up and set my Garmin to 5/1 intervals.  I decided to run in my subdivision and I headed out with my tunes, my gum, and a Powerade Zero in the mailbox.  My first 2 miles were sub-13.  That was amazing for me.  It's been A REALLY LONG time since I've seen that.  I swung by my mailbox at 2.2 miles for a drink.  I continued along, trying really hard to maintain that sub-13, but my pace started slowing.  I swung back around to my mailbox at 3.7 miles for another drink.  I thought about only doing 4 miles and then I got mad at myself.  I headed out to do 5 and I was going to do 5!  I set off to finish out the remaining 1.3 miles knowing just the right path to finish it off.  I completed my run feeling accomplished.  I haven't felt like that in A REALLY LONG time.  In fact, the last time I ran at least 5 miles was back on October 30th when I ran an injured 7 miles before I found out about my stress fracture.  That was 3 months ago!!! 

On my last 2 mile run - 2 1/2 weeks ago (boo on me) - I averaged 13.28 min/mile pace.

On this 5 mile run, I averaged a 13.30 min/mile pace.

Looks like my 5/1 intervals allowed me to do the distance while maintaining my speed.  I honestly can say had I tried running the 5 miles without the intervals, I either never would have made it the entire distance and/or my average pace would have been around a 14 min/mile.

Since this post is mostly about running, I thought I would add that my friends Meliska, Lauren, Rachel, and I are all doing the Chick-fil-A 5K on February 19th.  This will be my first 5K for the year.  My PR is a 39.40.  That's a 12:47 pace.  I don't have any high hopes of PRing this race, but...well it would be really great to have a race I can be proud of.  The only way to make that happen is to run.  Practice makes perfect.  I have a recommitment to my "craft", if you will. 

My mileage for January is pathetic.  It's not even a drop in the bucket to get me to my goal of 600 miles for the year.  February, here I come!

whack-a-doodle doo

I had a whackadoo idea when I woke up this morning.  shocker.  I know so many people who are venturing into the C25K land with this new year and/or who started it last year.  Somehow/someway when I started my so called running thing last January, I had never heard of such a thing.  By the time my Meliska bamboozled  me into running my first 5K later that month, well I guess it just seemed silly to "backtrack" by doing a program designed to get me prepared for my first 5K that I had already run.

I also started thinking about how I went from doing my 3/1 interval method (February to April) to my 4/1 intervals (April to August) and then to straight-out running (September to current).  I'm kind of all or nothing like that, I suppose.  There was no other gradual progression put into place.  It was like BAM! take that body!  Now I seem to just be struggling to get back into the groove post injury.  I think it's because I want to be able to resume where I left off - not in distance, per say, but in my ability to rock the mileage outright (sans intervals).  I'm not so certain I'm being fair to my body.  In a lot of ways I'm starting over from scratch here.

My Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half Marathon is in a little over 9 weeks.  My Orange County Half Marathon is in a little over 14 weeks.  I'm not concerned with finishing either of these races in their time limits (4 hours and 3 1/2 hours, respectively), but what I am concerned with is finishing them with my head held high knowing I put forth my best effort.  I don't feel like I've been giving running my best effort in the past week.  I feel like I've been discouraged and so I've just not run.

Well, my friends...there's a new attitude in town - she just arrived today (oh dear - I hope it's a new attitude and not another personality indicative of some kind of personality disorder).  So this leads me to my whackadoo idea.  I'm going to do the C25K, but in fast forward.  This means instead of doing 3 workouts a week for 9 weeks to complete the program, I'm going to do 5 to 6 workouts a week to complete the program in 5 to 6 weeks.  This will be in addition to my long Saturday or Sunday run. 

Now don't be getting any crazy ideas that I will be overworking my pelvis.  I will still be cross-training one day a week with a 24-Hour Fitness class and keep in mind this C25K program incorporates a lot of walking intermixed with the running.  If I feel any pain at any given moment - everything comes to a SCREECHING HALT! 

Oh...I'm also wondering if this C25K program will help increase my speed.  I know I've mentioned it before (perhaps on SEVERAL occasions) that I was faster when I incorporated intervals into the mix than when I nixed them.  Perhaps by taking it back a bit and working through the transitions of intervals to straight running, I will learn how to maintain my speed.  By the way, I do use the term speed very lightly since we all know I'm a special kind of turtle!  =D

So, what do you think?  Whackadoo?  I'm starting tomorrow morning!

In case you are wondering - here is the program in a written out format.  I know I can get an application for my phone, but I don't want to carry my phone with me, so I'm going to set my Garmin for each workout to keep me on program.