Days until Burlington: 195
So, the goal to run 5 days a week is already going pretty well (she says on day 3). But when it was intermittently raining last night, it was somehow easier for me to get out and run, knowing that there was no pressure to run a certain distance, more to just get another day under my legs. (I ended up doing a modest 3.1.)
Today I signed up for the St. Pete's 10K, so in less than 30 days, I'll be running here:
With views like this:
which is WAAAAAAY better than any 10K I'm going to run in January in Boston.
This week was my first week of adding back "speed work" - which - for the record - is actually a terrible idea because I'm also increasing the miles I run (this is a recipe for injury). But on Wednesday, I did my first tempo run in a while. Tempo runs are a warm up, with about 20-30 minutes of "near race pace" running with a cool down. These get your legs used to running for a long time at a faster clip (which is obviously different from sprinting). One of the toughest things to gauge for me is my "race pace" - since pretty much every race for me has had varying degrees of preparation behind it - I don't really know what's "typical" or what's "me at my best". I mean - I have PRs in each distance, but then I'll have a race right near it that is like...a full minute per mile off.
A lot of training is allegedly based on pacing. You run long, slow distance runs about 2 minutes slower per mile than your race pace. You run tempo runs about 20 seconds off your race page. Race pace race pace race pace.
While I've been running for 3 years, this is still something I have no idea how to measure. Which makes me panic a little. Then I was reading my Runner's World - and someone said, "RUN! It's not math." So last night, I just did what felt OK on my legs - which was much slower than I would have liked, but I know is the way to stay injury-free.
It also helps to run with a view!
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