Friday, August 17, 2012

It's Play Time!

Recently I've been switching things up a bit which has made running 1381904810x more fun.

Yesterday. 7 total miles! I went to a local trail that overlooks the bay. You know how wind makes you feel like you're working hard and running fast, only to see that your pace is like one full minute slower than your usual easy pace? That's pretty much what happened, except for the lovely fact that headwind followed me even after I switched directions. So after two slow miles I decided to pack it in...and found myself on a treadmill at the gym instead.

So beautiful. So little motivation.
I was in a grumpy mood; it was so nice out and I bailed on a beautiful run. So, to make things more fun, I decided to run mile repeats to avoid treadmill boredom! I wasn't going incredibly fast, but I did a total of 4 7:30 miles with quarter mile jogs in between. I'm hoping to sub 1:40 in a fall half-marathon so I have to start practicing running at a 7 something pace again. (During marathon training I mostly ran in the 8 minute mile pace because my goal pace was an 8:12 mile.)

I definitely think the treadmill has its place in training. While treadmills are sometimes not calibrated correctly, they are great in keeping you right on a target pace. I, for one, have a hard time pushing myself to do an outside tempo run; it's too easy to slow down when I'm feeling tired. However, once I punch in a goal speed on the treadmill, I am more likely to stick it out.

Today. I went on a 3 mile hilly hike with my friends Emma and Deborah. It was great to get out and soak in a little sunshine.
Me and Emma!

Me and Deb!
Despite the being in the 70's, I wore my compression socks. My mileage has been a little higher this week since the marathon. I averaged 40 miles Monday-Thursday so it was important to get in a little recovery today.

The highlight of my week?

Well, that's to come. I have yet to try them out yet but I can safely say that I'm a total sucker for new running toys. It's play time!


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