Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ponderings from a Morning Run

First, let's discuss last night's swim. Let me try to sum it up in one word: ugh. I really didn't want to go - thank goodness for Katy and her girls, because if it wasn't for our weekly swim date, I would have just gone to bed.

I don't know if it was the fact that it was freezing outside, my leaky goggles, or the tidal waves from the guy showing off doing swim sprints in the next lane but I was not feeling it. I tried to have an open mind, be confident, and be f*cking fearless like Coach ELF suggests, but all I felt was akward and, ironically, like a fish out of water. After the first 500m I just about got out of the pool, but what good would that have done? Does it make you mentally tougher if you just stop? Um, no. Besides, who DNFs on a workout? WTF???

Fine. I'll finish. It's just 75 m sprints, how bad can it be, right?

I looked over at tidal-wave boy and said "Bring it, b*tch." (in my head, of course) And you know what? I kept up with him for all 4 of my 75m sprints. I forgot my watch again, so I'm not sure what my overall pace was for the day, but I'm going to guess about 18 minutes. That's 2:00ish/100, which works for me! I might not have started this workout fearless & confident, but it sure ended that way.

Mental Challenge: 0 Sara: 1 woohooo!! Moving on!

This mornings run was freakin' fantastic! For some reason I was up at o'dark hundred this morning, and the first word to pop into my head. Run.

ha ha. very funny. I'm laughing my ass off.
Run.
No. Go away. My bed is warm.
Run.
B*tch, shut up.
Run.
No.
Run.
No.
RUN!!
Fine! b*tch.

Sometimes I have to argue with myself to get myself out of bed. It's my process.

But what a great run. I got to wear my spiffy new Nike jacket (yay for clearance sales!) and I just ran. Didn't have to think about anything, just ran. In the zone, if you will. It was great. Fast too - 3.3 miles in 28 minutes! I'll take that anyday!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

You Can Call Me Dennis...

....yes. That Dennis.

Why you ask? First of all, if you have not seen Run, Fat Boy, Run stop reading this post and go watch it. Immediately.

You're back? Oh good. Moving on!

So, it SNOWED here today. Seventy degrees yesterday, snow today. It was also my first brick (bike/run) workout. Since I'm not all about biking in the snow, I hooked Honey up to the trainer & let Coach Troy yell at me for the duration of his "Suffer-o-Rama" DVD. Sounds like fun, no? It actually wasn't so bad. Really. The point of a brick workout is to get your legs used to running when they're tired, so after 45 minutes of suffering, I threw on my tights and sleeves, grabbed the dog and headed outside.

And immediately fell off the first step coming out of my front door. Smooth Dennis, very smooth.

Frick. I should have seen that one coming. After all, God does have a sense of humor.

After recovering, Champ and I hopped in the Exploder and drove down to the canal bank so we could run somewhere flat. Don't judge me - if I were to run from my front step, it would be a half mile uphill climb to get home. The goal for today's run was 15 minutes with negative splits, keeping the heart rate low. I am always amazed at how my legs function after biking. I feel like I felt like I was moving in slow motion, but when I check my time I was running at a 7:40 pace! My first mile was 7:54!! For the first brick of the season? That's a very good sign in my book. I had to walk a little bit at the halfway point, but for the most part was able to run the whole thing. Ended up doing 1.93 miles in 15:58. If I can keep that pace for 3.1 miles, that puts me at around 24:00 for a 5K. That's a whole 6 minutes faster than last year! Wohoo!

The exciting part, is that I PR'd in the first week of training (in running and swimming). The even better part is that I'm not supposed to peak for another 8 weeks - I wonder what I can do in that amount of time!

I'm going to go stretch and have a piece of carrot cake to celebrate. I can't wait to swim tomorrow!