August 1, 2012
As I said I started a new training program yesterday. The goal of this training is to increase my speed by increasing my endurance. I posted before that this kind of makes sense but I won't be a believer until I see some improvements in both endurance and speed.
Today's workout called for sixty "easy" minutes. I decided to do this on the treadmill because it was so hot out and I really didn't want to do sixty minutes on the street with the hills. I didn't want to wear myself out and not make the whole sixty minutes. I knew if I wore out I would give up and I wouldn't do all the time. This would feel like failure to me and I didn't want to fail. I decided to hit the mill to avoid the guilt. This is what proves to me that to me, that to me running is just as psychological as it is physical. I can mentally talk myself into being stronger. I wish I could figure out a way to talk myself into being more excited. I guess I'm just in another blue funk.
So, as I said today's workout called for sixty minutes at "easy." I wasn't sure what "easy" meant so I set the mill at my usual 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0. My usual mill workout has me running a 5k distance. I always run the first mile at 5.6 mph and then turn it down to 5.0 for the last 2.1 miles. I keep the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. That is my usual mill run. Today I wanted to keep it at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. I was determined not to switch up the run in any way. I did okay to start with. I knew this was going to be tough. The mill is boring and an hour is a long time when you are used to running only a little over half an hour. I haven't been on the treadmill for an hour since I started working on it back before I got married.....and during that time I was walking, not running. I knew this was going to be boring but I was determined. It started out okay. I did the 5k mileage at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 but I was getting tired. I had to keep talking to myself, marking off time in increments, counting down time backwards and forwards and taking it in chunks of ten minutes or half miles, any trick I could think of to keep me going. At a speed of 5.0 mph (12:00 pace) it takes me thirty-seven minutes to run 3.1 miles. After that I had twenty-one minutes left to run. I was feeling the run and I was getting tired. This is the point where my mind games really needed to keep me going. I had to slow down the speed. I set it at 4.0 to see if that would help me recover. That was either too slow or too fast. I still can't decide. At my level of tiredness it was too fast to walk and it was too slow to run. I decided to kick it up. I set it at 4.4 mph and ran it at that for the last twenty-one minutes. It seemed to work.
Overall I was pleased with this run. I didn't know if I would have the endurance to run for sixty minutes and I was pleased that even though I had to slow down at the end I was able to run the whole sixty minutes. I stopped the mil at 1.5 miles for a quick drink of water, then again at 3.1 miles for another drink. This is one of the psychological games I play. I give myself a set amount of miles to run before I can have a drink. It divides the time up and gives me a distraction. It's similar to when you are running on the street. When you are running on the street you tell yourself you can make it to the next lamp post or to the next landmark. It's all psychological but it helps you keep going. Anyway, I was pleased with this run. I made it through the whole time with a couple stops for drinks and with only the slight adjustment in mph. The goal here, as with yesterday's run was not about mileage (although I was so close to 5 miles I was incredibly tempted to continue to meet that personal goal) it was about minutes. The plan called for sixty minutes at the easy pace so I kept it at sixty minutes. Besides, I was tired. I felt good despite being tired. I ran sixty minutes, something I didn't think I would be able to do and I proved to myself that I could.
I ran 4.72 miles @ 5.0 and 4.4 mph with a pace of 12:00 and 13:38. This averages out to a pace of 12:42 according to the running website I post my workouts on. I ran for sixty minutes. I felt good after my workout, sweaty and glad to be done with the mill but I didn't hurt and I didn't feel like I wouldn't be able to move tomorrow.
Tomorrow's run calls for thirty minutes of "easy". I can do that at the 5.0 speed.
Happy Running!
KEA
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