Tag: mlfitness

Been up since 4:45am but I went to sleep around 10:30pm and slept pretty well.

We drove the hour to Talladega and dealt with some crazy parking. I’ll finish the race, but I’m not certain I’ll make it out of the parking lot!

I’m excited and nervous as usual. It’s currently 44 degrees, but it will heat up soon I’m sure.

Race starts in 30 minutes. So hopefully I’ll get back to you guys in about 3 hours from now!

Ya know because I’m running a half marathon at a Nascar speedway this Sunday!

Last night I stocked up on GUs, a new sweatband, and a pouch for my nike plus sensor to put on my Brooks. I wanted to get a new race tank, but I didn’t like anything I saw. Plus an orange and blue one I already have nicely compliments my kicks. I want Wiley to be able to spot me as I’m running.

This race will have GUs at 3 of their water stations. My plan is to get their “free” GUs and save mine, but I’m packing them just in case. I’m curious how accurate the pouch for my Nike+ will be. I’ve grown some accustomed to my Nike+ telling me distance and pace that I’d feel weird without it.

I also made my playlist which I haven’t posted. FOR SHAME. I’ll have to do that later.

Finally I’ve been having a inner debate is if should run 1 mile then walk a minute (a slight variation on Canada and E’s 9+1 running method). I haven’t practiced this way, but I’ve been thinking about it.

My 2 previous half marathons were 2:13 and 2:19. I’ll be happy with 2:15, but I am secretly hoping to PR (I don’t have an exact PR in mind).

Once I DOMINATE my half this weekend I plan on working on speed training for my 5K on May 1. I haven’t done much speed training or even understand what a fartlek is (however I do giggle every time I read/say it). I found some of these words of wisdom on speed training from a non tumblr blogger who asked her readers, but I’m open to all input. Speed is NOT my strong suit and I’d love to really shave some major time off my 5K

Speed advice from others:

• Warmup (5-10 minutes) – 2min, 4min, 2 min (repeat) – Cooldown
• The first 2 minutes are at your regular running speed, the next 4 minutes are at a pace you would never consider and you cannot talk, cool down for 2 minutes. Repeat as many times as you want. I added a repeat every week starting with 4 the first week. the most important speed work I do is my tempo runs. I am now a big fan of the “split tempo” because it’s easier to handle mentally. start small and do 1.5 miles @ tempo pace (I use a 5kish pace but really just going FAST) and then a mile easy then another 1.5 mile tempo and keep increasing.
• 2 Min easy, then, 30 seconds ‘Demons are chasing you’ fast. – Repeat 5-10 times.
• I also like doing small bursts of speed when I’m just getting back into speed work- one of my fave early season runs is 1 min fast 1 min easy, 2 min fast 2 min easy, 3 min fast 3 min easy all the way up to 6, 7 8 or so and then back down. Really awesome workout and no pace goal just pushing it!

Speed advice from you…

Yoga+hangover=fail

10.25 miles completed.

Next Sunday is 13.1 time at the Talladega Superspeedway.

I’m freakin’ AMPED. 

Yesterday my beautiful new Brooks came in, but I had a 6 miler scheduled and I knew running 6 miles in new shoes would be a terrible idea. So instead I went out on a 4 miler in my old running shoes then came home changed into my Brooks for 2 miles. To be fair I first ran 4.2 miles because as much as 6.2 is an uneven number, I do like the roundness of 10K!

As soon as I put on my new shoes I couldn’t get over how LIGHT they were. My Nikes are like bricks in comparision. The Brooks also breathed (sp?) really well. I have some teeny tiny blisters one the same toe on each foot, but really I enjoyed the fit (I was between sized and went for the bigger one aka unisex size 10s). I plan to have the Brooks be mainly race-day shoes, but until I get my Nike Air Pegasus in May I’ll be wearing them a bit more regularly along with my old Nikes.

I hope I can break the Brooks in enough to run in them next weekend (4/3) in my half. Is that too soon?