This Week in Workouts: A New Milestone!

Good morning! I hope your weekend was absolutely wonderful and to anyone who participated in the Boston Marathon, CONGRATULATIONS, you are incredible and I so hope your was one for the books!! In true marathon spirit, this last week included my longest run yet by a half mile. But, it was my fastest 10K and my longest time spent running. 

What is incredibly interesting about this run was that I did the run/walk/run per usual but decided to run the entire last mile. Turns out that was my slowest mile of all! The pace before that mile was 11.01, The 6th mile went up to an 11:38! There really is something to this run/walk/run method!! So, let's talk about what else I did for exercise.

Monday: 3-minute Magic Mile with a 9:30 pace! 

Tuesday: Rest Day

Wednesday: 30-minute run. Ran 3.06 miles :)

Thursday: Long run of 6.50 miles on the Legacy Trail- an old train track that has been converted to a running/biking path. The parts that I ran were a bit boring, but I have heard they get better when you get into the state parks. 

Friday: This Hip Opening Sequence

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: Some Sun Salutations

A little housekeeping for this week: The hubs and I will be in California for a bit so getting posts out might be a touch more difficult. My goal is to be able to do 1-2 posts about the area that we are in, great workouts (possibly while on an airplane since I have this one down), and hopefully a third!

Next week we will talk about Jeff Galloway's book, The Run Walk Run Method. If you have not yet finished it, or started it, I totally recommend picking it up!! 

One Magic Mile Down

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Jeff Galloway has created something called the "Magic Mile" as part of his run training programs. What a Magic Mile is meant to do is give you a reasonable expectation of how quickly you can run a 10k, half marathon, or marathon. For a half marathon, you follow a simple formula after getting a few Magic Miles under your belt. 

Jeff has this mile during a 3-4 mile run and places it right in the middle. The goal is to push yourself as hard as you can without huffing and puffing or running in a way that may cause injury. After a few MM's are done, you average that number and multiply it by 1.2. But, in true cart-ahead-of-horse style, I thought I would tell you what my first MM was and what that could mean for the race. OK! 

I ran yesterday in 82 degree muggy heat with a terribly bad stomach ache (note to self, eating strawberry shortcake 2 hours before a run is a BAD idea) but, a determined mindset. I had a goal of running the whole mile and making it a pretty good pace to boot. Well, it was a push and the mile following my MM was not a super fun happy time of magic and rainbows and unicorns cheering me on as I ran, arms open, while singing "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music", but I did it. 

My first mile out of the three was decidedly slow at a 10:31 average pace and a 3:1 walk/run rate. Then, the MM came and I ran the whole deal (plus three minutes) and made it a 9:30 pace!! My pace got as quick as 8:30 and as slow as 10:00. Thankfully though, it averaged out to something that I can be proud of. The third mile, however, was not. That guy ended up being a crawl at 11:14. Ha! 

So, if my average stays around 9:30, my push-pace come race day will be an 11:24 per mile pace. Not too bad! I am hoping to have a 12 min/mile pace come race day with being able to do some character pictures. Also, finishing under 2:30 would be a dream!!!

So, have you done the MM before? And, was it close to your race pace?

April Book Club: The Run-Walk-Run Method

Happy Thursday! I hope your April Fools Day was good and there were only funny pranks involved ;) Every year the hubs plays some kind of April Fool's prank on me, and this year my phone was the weapon of choice. As a joke, he made the home screen a picture only and moved all the other icons to different pages. I feel so ridiculous saying it now, but I seriously thought my phone was broken. None of my apps would open and when I tried to change pages, they all just overlapped onto each other.

After showing said trickster and him not being able to fix it (ha!) I resigned to visiting the Apple store for help. Thankfully, the hubs let me know it was a joke before I drove over got talking to a Genius about my wallpaper issues.

But, today is a new day and there should be no pranks involved, fingers crossed! Last night I started reading a new book to get a better understanding on running, and thought some of you may like to read it as well. So, for April, we will resurrect the book club for Jeff Galloway's book, The Run-Walk-Run Method.

This book goes into further detail about Galloway's run-walk-run method and how it can work for newbie runners and veterans alike. Although I am interested in all the perks of this method, the main reason I am reading it is to better understand this Magic Mile and the interval time I should be using.

If you have not read the book yet, or even if you have, you can read it along with me in hard copy or kindle version, found here. Then, we will have a nice review of the book, the insights, and all the little details towards the end of April. So far, it is a very easy read and seems quite short, so it should not take long at all!

Last Week in Workouts- Week 3 of Half Training

Yes, I know! We are starting up the workout sum-ups, again! The reason for this is two-fold and mildly selfish. First, these are some of my favorite posts on other blogs because it helps you see 1) people are doing what they write and 2) it gives me inspiration to workout and ideas on how. Seeing someone else go through the sweat hours makes it so much easier to do myself! And, secondly, I want a catalog of what I do during this whole half marathon training experience. What works, and what are the worst things that I could ever do and want to never do again.

I know that the half is almost two full training segments away, but really want to feel over-prepared for it, especially considering running fast and far is not usually my favorite thing. Well, that was, before I got a goal. Let that be a lesson to myself and the eyes reading this, goals change things in a BIG way. In fact, you will probably hear me talking about that a lot in the near future.

But, back to my week. It was not as workout centric as I wanted it to be. Actually, I have not gone on my long run yet. Yesterday was an unusually busy and cold day for me (and Florida), so, with my running attire on and my headphones in hand, I procrastinated. I did not go on my long run and by the time that it was too late to get out and get my everything else done for the day, I decided to run tomorrow. This has become a bit of a pattern with me- when my running buddy is not available on Sunday, I tend to push my run back to Monday. So, here is my, somewhat, lack-luster 3rd week of training!

Monday: My long run of 4 miles. I did this on the treadmill, but did not hate it as much as I planned. I have started running more outside, which means running on the treadmill is the literal worst. This run, however, was not too bad!

Tuesday: Rest Day!!

Wednesday: 30-minute run. This was the first time doing the Galloway run/walk system outside. Man, it is so much easier/better outside than on a treadmill. I don't think I will ever do intervals on a treadmill again! It was also great to look back at the Nike+ Running app and see that when I wanted to keep my runs the same pace, I did. And, when I wanted to increase or decrease my pace, I did that as well. My energy excursion matched my performance and that is not something that exactly happens every day here!

Thursday: Hot Yoga! It was my first time back in a while and my run buddy came with me! Great class and the substitute instructor told me I did well a lot. Not the worst thing in the world ;)

Friday: 30-minute run. This one I did around a nearby park that I love. It is actually the day that the picture above was taken. The sky's were stormy, the wind was (ummm) windy (?) and it rained a whole lot. But, I finished the run because, let's face it, there is no gaurantee that the Wine and Dine will have beautiful 65 degree weather for our run. Best be prepared.

Saturday: Bridge walk on this super pretty, tall bridge we have in our hometown. This was a great post run workout and my quads are still feeling it a bit!

Sunday: I think I did some laundry, maybe?