Saturday, April 25, 2015

Week 5 of the Plan to Run a Faster Half Marathon

Sunday  plan said   3 miles easy, 3 miles tempo (7:15 pace) 3 miles easy

What I did:  3 miles easy, 3 miles tempo although closer to 7:27 pace and 3 miles easy. The run felt pretty good, but I really just couldn't hold the pace I was supposed to, hills, wind, whatever it was hard!

I continued with the #RunnersLoveYogaHIPS Instagram challenge this week also
Monday plan said 7 miles easy with 6-10 strides at the end

What I did  7 miles easy with 6 strides at the end for 7.5 miles

Tuesday plan said nothing.

I ran 3.15 miles after work easy before the bus brought the kids home from school. 

Thursday plan said 12-13 miles easy with 6-10 strides at the end

What really happened: 13 miles easy, no strides.  This was a pretty hilly trail run and I was beat at the end.  Strides just didn't happen.  I did a lot of my running around the edge of a field and took forays up into areas like the one pictured below.  It was a cloudy morning and a little rainy. Perfect for running!

Saturday plan said .5 mile warmup, 5 miles tempo .5 mile cooldown

what really happened:  .5 mile warmup and I got a side ache right away.  I did not feel the run love on this run. I could tell right away the 5 miles of tempo would be a struggle. I HAD THAT RIGHT!  My supposed to be 7:15 pace was 7:50 pace and lucky to be that. I added an additional .2 miles on at the end for a virtual 10k I was doing and called it a run.

Spring!  Green and mud, I love it :)
Okay so this week in my favorite TV shows, it was a little dramatic.  Derek Shepherd dies. WTF! Grey's Anatomy in case you just got lost there.  I haven't even seen the episode yet.  Thanks to Facebook I don't need too, but I will, eventually when I think I can handle it.   I also know that when I do watch it I am going to need a box of kleenex.  I don't know if I want to watch it.  After Sloan and Lexi died I nearly quit the show, but now Derek.  That is so wrong.

The other show I love right now is Vikings.  Ragnar is dying. Once again, WTF.  It all feels a little Game of Thrones. "Oh, that's your favorite character in the show... OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" Lets kill your favorite people and leave you sitting there shocked like you need therapy and something to drink.   Yeah, yeah I know Ragnar isn't dead yet, but it seems like he isn't far away and they didn't have antibiotics.  Ragnar is the freaking show, please don't kill him!

Gone For A Run asked me to help promote their virtual run in exchange for a free entry to it.  It came with a nice tank, bib to run in, and a medal.  I like the tank, the bib was a great touch and the medal is nice, but I can't decide how I feel about having a medal from a virtual run.   Sure, I did the run, but even with a bib and a race shirt it really doesn't feel that much different than a normal training run.  This leads me to having a hard time being proud of the medal.  I don't look at the medal and think YAY I just ran a race and EARNED this.

I hung it up with my other medals, but I don't know that it deserves to be there. I look at my other medals and remember how I ran my hiney off to get them and had a race experience with other runners, race support, race excitement, etc and it just doesn't feel the same for a virtual race. 

Anyone else feel the same about virtual race medals?
How was your week in training?  Mine was so much better than last week!

4 comments:

  1. I've got a blog post in the works about virtual medals. I'm afraid to publish it, for all the backlash I'm sure to get. After all, what are we running for? Bling? If it's for a charity, I'm ok with it, otherwise....

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  2. I couldn't believe Grey's. I didn't know what happened till I was watching it. In typical Grey's fashion, it was pretty dramatic. I used to do strides at the end of my runs and would end up skipping them or cutting them short and now I am doing them in the middle and I love it! I don't skip them and I look forward to how it breaks up the run. Sorry about those tempo miles.

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  3. Sounds like you are getting it done all right, even if not PRECISELY according to plan. I haven't watched Grey's in years and I seem to have fallen off the Viking ship, so to speak, this season too. I have too much trouble keeping the characters and names straight!

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  4. I've never even done a virtual race. I like the "go to a race" experience so they just don't interest me. But, if it makes someone get out the door and do something healthy...go for it.

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