Sizzle me this

Today's afternoon run with hill repeats was a sizzler at about 70 degrees. But, according to my mantra, the harder and wackier the training conditions, the easier the racing will be :P

I felt good on the warm up and reached a hill that I'd scouted out for oh so fun hill repeats. The first couple 1 minute uphill bursts felt fine, and it was tough to tell if I was working hard enough because I do these based on effort. By the fourth hill repeat, it was hard, hard work. I gave it my all on number 5, but it would have been possible to do a sixth repeat, which is always the intended goal. After completing all five repeats, it was tough to catch my breath and my body was feeling the heat. Next time I do hill repeats (in a couple weeks), I will plan to do 6 repeats. I cooled down for about another 20 minutes, though the last mile was pretty much a jog, as I was fried.

Air legs

We landed late last night and my legs had been sardined into airplane seats for the better (or worse) part of Sunday. Mental note- if flying to a marathon, allot an extra day for legs to revive from the flight before the race! Without a full dose of sleep, I went for a run. My gut felt like it could sink the Titanic and my left knee was creaky at the beginning. But the last third of the 40 minute run was fine, and I'm hoping it'll boost my energy till bedtime.

McMillan would be proud

Spring break meant a flat 45 minute run around the squares of Savannah on Tuesday morning. I covered a lot of ground that Jeff and I had explored and walked through during the previous days of sightseeing.

On Thursday morning, I used the gym's treadmill and programmed a tough tempo run. Although I kept the incline at zero for the tempo part of the run, my speed started at 8:20 and decreased to 7:50, which is my appropriate challenging tempo zone according to McMillan's running training calculator. I was sweating up a storm and definitely sweated out some toxins--courtesy of southern fried food plus cocktails galore!

Yes it was hard work amidst the delights of vacationing, but good stuff...

Boulevarding

I learned that crepes, as delicious as they may be, are NOT the breakfast of champions for running ;) Regardless, I enjoyed a 1 hr 50 min run- 2 loops around Cherokee Boulevard.

It was warmer than I'd expected, and my tummy needed to concentrate on its digestion of an insane amount of homecooked food. My legs felt good at the end, and I kicked it up a couple notches for the last couple miles, so it sorta counts as a fast finish long run!!

You could wear jeans

A nice 50 minute run along the marina in Oak Ridge--the river's water was glittery! I passed through a couple groups of college rowers. My mom suggested that I run in my jeans since it was chilly, but I chose to borrow a pair of sweatpants ;)

Smokin'

I headed up to the high school track, and it was a bit dark and early. During the warm-up jog my legs felt a little tired, and I patted myself on the back that I dragged myself out of bed to do my first track workout of the Bay to Breakers training cycle. Tracky time is always a bit painful and pushes me out of my comfort zone, but I'm certain it boosts speed and builds muscle like nothing else. The track facilities are OUTSTANDING--there's something about that deep rusty-reddish ellipse that gets me going :)

My goal was to do six repetitions of 400s (1 lap of the track), so I treated it like two sets of 3 X 400s. The first three 400s were all under 1:47. I felt like I was cruising through those three intervals, which is not so shabby. And my second three 400s were between 1:41-1:44--with my final two 400s as my fastest! I was definitely concentrating more on that second set and my lungs were working overtime on that last lap.

The best news...I completed all 400s well under the 1:50 specified by the McMillan pace calculator (one of my most trusted running resources!). I think the hill workouts and long runs strengthened my legs because these 400s are quite a bit speedier than my 400s in December-January when I was training for the Kaiser halfie.