What Not To Read

Ai yi yi. Why do I even pretend to follow this training plan of mine? I just keep switching things around all the time! However, I will admit, that I do need the guidelines of how many miles to be running per week and I figure if I get them all in, I should be okay in the end, right? Today, for numerous reasons, I decided to switch up today's workout with Saturday's workout. That meant that instead of doing the proscribed 4 miles, including 4 x 1:00 AI + 5-6 GP, I ran a 5K "race" (Saturday's workout).

Race has to be in quotation marks because what that really meant was that I convinced Drew to get his butt outside and run in the Park with me. I would have liked to have run in a real race and I tried to find one nearby with no luck. Also, this weekend is supposed to be really cold here, so it seemed like it would be better to get outside and push myself now before it gets brutally cold out there.

Today it was 34 degrees and I wore tights, shorts (my rear end gets really cold without them, which might be TMI, but oh well), a tank top, long sleeved shirt, wind breaker jacket, gloves and hat. And these really great socks that my mom got for me for Christmas that are longer than some of my others, which meant that I didn't have a gap between my tights and socks.

Before we left, I told Drew that I was fine if he wanted to run ahead of me. In some ways, it was motivational (as in, how much longer will it take me?) and in some ways it was pretty sad (as in, I'll never be that fast ... ever). My goal for this was to go out and maybe not give it 100% of what I had, but at least 90-95%. I really wanted to push myself a bit to see how I could do on time and hopefully come in below 10:00/mile.

Although we were supposed to be running a 5K (3.10 miles) the best route I could map out for us in a circle was 3.40 miles, which Drew said was fine with him. So, we started running and not long after that Drew double checked that I'd be okay if he ran ahead and then he took off. I could see him for a little while, but then he was gone and I was just left to plod along myself.

While plodding, all I could think about was the book that I'm reading right now. I'm not ruining anything for you (as it happens in the first 20 pages of the book) by telling you that you probably should not read a book about a woman getting raped & murdered in the dark while running in Central Park and then go running there in the dark. Not that I ever felt unsafe this morning, but since I'm already a worst-case-scenario kind of person, it didn't help matters any.

Other than my crazy thoughts, everything was going along just peachy for the first part of the run. I wasn't quite sure where the mile markers were, except for Mile 2. For some reason, that mile marker had stuck in my head and I reached that at 19:15 (9:37/mile pace). Not that I'm good at math and knew my pace while I was running, but I was really happy to see a number under 20:00. Of course, right after that, my brain tried to tell me that I should just take a little walking break. But, I didn't listen. And what's really funny about that is that most of the rest of the run felt like I was walking on air. It was just really quick and easy. I'm glad I broke through my mental barrier on this run and I hope I can remember to do that in the future, too.

Once I got to 72nd Street, I knew there was one tiny little climb and then it was all pretty much downhill or flat. I definitely tried to start pushing myself a little bit more at this point. By the time I met up with Drew (he waited for me to go home), I had a little more than 1/8 of a mile left to go. And I really pushed it. Drew asked me if I wanted a wing man for my run to the end and I said yes. Once he started running with me he said, "You're really moving!". Then, of course, he started to ask me some questions, which I was in no position to answer at that point if I wanted to finish, so I told him we could talk in about a minute.

When I got about 100 yards from the finish, I was exhausted and wanted to quit and I did definitely slow down a bit, but I'm really proud that I didn't ever stop running, even though my brain wanted to trick my body into stopping. I know that what I did today isn't really that fast in the scheme of things (Drew ran the same distance in 27 minutes and some seconds ~ 8:06/mile pace), but I was really happy with my time and effort today. When I got to the end of the run it took me about a minute to regroup and be able to breathe normally again, so I really felt like I left it all out on the course today. It also means that I am pretty certain that I ran a sub 30:00 5K today, which is super-de-duper awesome for me mentally! And since it's all mental, that's a big deal!

Run To Park
Time: 5:35
Distance: 0.50 miles
Pace: 11:09/mile
Calories: 60
Maximum HR: 169
Average HR: 161

Running
Time: 32:06
Distance: 3.40 miles
Pace: 9:26/mile
Calories: 448
Maximum HR: 198
Average HR: 183

Run Home
Time: 5:30
Distance: 0.50 miles
Pace: 11:00/mile
Calories: 66
Maximum HR: 178
Average HR: 170