A new Training Run PR! And a new Half goes on the calendar

Well, all the weather forecasters have been calling for this 6-inch snowstorm to hit Chicagoland (and particularly the county I live in).  When it started sprinkling at 4pm at the office, I decided to leave before the roads became congested and turn a 1-hour commute into a 3+ hour one (the longest snow commute for me has been 4 hours).

So as I am driving home, I call my running partner (my car has built-in 'handsfree calling' which is legal here in Illinois) to talk about races and to see if he might want to hit the gym tonight.  I mean hey, it is going to be snowing so what better use of our time than getting in a few miles!  He considered it but eventually learned his family had other ideas.  Oh well, see ya on Saturday for our long run, Mike. :)

He and I did agree to add another race to our schedule.  Mike and I are going to run the North Shore Half Marathon on June 10th which is organized by Ram Racing (who held the Turkey Trot 5K race I ran last November).  Mike had run it before and said it was a good race.  And the swag is pretty nice.  Half Marathon finishers get a nice medal, and all runners get a cool Track Jacket 'goodie'.  And, they host a post-race breakfast of pancakes, french toast, sausages, and bananas (similar to the Turkey Trot last year).  So I am excited!  That makes 6 Half Marathons for me this year.  (I will likely add two more by year-end and get promoted to a Two Moon Half Fanatic.  We'll see.)

So I go to the gym, get dressed in my running gear, put on my Instinct shoes, and head for the Treadmill.  I decided that tonight I was going to do a 'race pace' run instead of my usual Thursday easy run.  I want to see where I stand in terms of my 5K pace.  I have a 5K race on March 24th and I really want to PR that race.  So it's a month away and I want to see if I am in a good place fitness-wise to accomplish that goal.  And, quite frankly, I wanted to really test these shoes to see how they feel at my 5K pace.

So, I did my 5 minute warm-up walk at 3.5mph and then I was "off to the races."  I set the Treadmill to a 9:30/mm pace (6.3mph) and a 1% incline, clicked the Lap button on my Polar watch, and the trial began!  I ran really comfortably for the first two miles and then my brain started telling me I was getting tired (I really hate negative self-talk. Gotta work on that).  So I worked on focusing on my breathing and my form, and responding with "GRRRRRR!!!! I am fine".  (I think part of it was that I forgot my water bottle and after two miles, my mouth was getting dry.  I could've used a quick drink.)

But I kept running.  And found that I still had plenty of leg left.  In fact, for the last .20 miles I bumped up the pace to 9:00/mm just to see what that would feel like.  Oh I noticed the difference!  But I finished the 5K distance, and then did a 5-minute cool-down at 3.5mph before calling the run complete.

The results?  Well, the entire workout went for 3.80 miles in 40:10.  But the cool thing was that I beat my last 5K PR by three seconds, finishing the 5K segment in 29:27! Granted, it is only a training PR.  But still, it told me what I needed to know -- that I definitely have a chance at PRing my upcoming 5K race, AND, that I have enough in me to run it at a pace faster than 9:30/mm.  I am very encouraged!  AND, I ran it with my minimalist shoes with no discomfort either during or after the run.  I like these shoes. :)

So now, I will focus my interval trainings between now and March 24th towards becoming comfortable with a 9:00/mm pace.  And, I am thinking of running the 5K race in the Instincts rather than my Sauconys.

I am at 15.7 miles for the week so far, with a planned 8-9 mile Long Run scheduled for Saturday.  This will be a good mileage week for sure.  I really felt like a runner tonight.  It was great!

On the Treadmill...And it felt so good!

Last week was a rarity: no workouts and no running for the whole week. By the end of the week, I was feeling jealous of all my friends who were posting about how their exercising was going. I realized that while getting up 'after' the sunrise was nice, I really 'missed' my run routine. Imagine that!

Today marked my first run in 10 days! And it felt so good! Perhaps it was because I gave my body a rest and a chance to focus on restoration. Perhaps it was because the short 'break' allowed my mind to appreciate the activity again. All I know is, I went to LifeTime, got dressed in my shorts, tech shirt, and shoes, activated my Polar watch, and away I went!

I listened to my workout playlist as I started out. I started with a five-minute brisk walk to warm up the legs and get a breathing rhythm going. Then I sped up to a 10:40/mm pace and started the run. The music was in my ears and the running felt effortless. The legs really wanted to go, and my breathing was in sync. So I just went along for the ride.

At some point after the second mile, I was found myself smiling! So I picked up the pace, increasing to a 9:30/mm pace, and it felt so smooth. At that speed, my heart rate was in Zone 3 and still, I felt like I could keep that pace up for a while. I was so in the groove!

Then I looked up at a clock and realized it was passed the time I had to stop (I had to shower and get to work). How disappointing! I ran for 3.77 miles but I think I could have gone for another 3 miles easily. I was late so I didn't take my usual five-minute cooldown, nor did I do any post-run stretching. (Not a good thing to skip by the way)

So, I showered, dressed, got a protein shake 'mix-in' from the LifeCafe (I bring my own whey protein), and headed into the office. Last night, I received a package from the Half Fanatics containing my HF singlet, jacket, and running cap. Very cool! So I decided to wear the jacket to work today. Not going to lie... I was pretty proud to wear the colors of the HF!

Speaking of the HF, I found a race in July (in Hoffman Estates) that I might want to run. It comes the day before the Rock-n-Roll Chicago Half, and if I finish both races I could move up to the Four Moon level in the Fanatics. The only problem is that Mike and I have friends from my W.I.S.H. Running Team coming from Canada to visit that same weekend, and I would rather spend time with them than run two races (and deal with recovery instead of having fun with them_. So I probably won't sign up for it. Guess I have to find another back-to-back Half weekend sometime in the late Fall (after the Chicago Marathon). Moving up to 4 Moons is not critical to my goals for 2012, but if I can fold it into my overall training schedule, it would be special.

And speaking of the Chicago Marathon, registration for that race opens tomorrow at Noon!!! A co-worker is thinking of signing up which is awesome! I was thinking of registering for it over the weekend. I hope registration doesn't close before then (last year it filled up after three weeks)! I wonder how many WISHers might be running the race (it would be cool to run with them).