RUN TODD RUN, Week 12

WEDNESDAY, 7/14/10
Usually, my schedule works better with a day-on, day-off approach to the running, but since knew my Thursday was going to be nuts, I decided to do another jaunt Wednesday night.

After going 22 minutes the previous night, I wasn't really sure what I would do out there. I originally thought I'd just put in another 15 and not push my legs quite so hard. However, by the time I hit the 15 minute mark, I had decided to do 20 minutes.

I did put in 20 minutes, but it was hard. The biggest issue was legs, which makes sense, since I had done 22 minutes the day before. But, I did it, and I guess that's the thing. Event though I've been running every week for the past 3 months, I lost some serious momentum over the past two or three weeks by not keeping a consistent schedule. In Tuesday and Wednesday runs, it was obvious that my pace had significantly dropped. Naturally, the last five minutes is going to be hard since it's the farthest I've gone, but I noticed a real "slowness" from the very start of the run.

It does feel good to hit 20. Twenty minutes has been a goal for me for three months and even though it's hard, I know I can do it if I just keep running. I'd like to see how many 20s I can do this week. I'd like to be at 25 minutes within two weeks and then hopefully at 30 by the end of August.

I can do that, right?

FRIDAY, 7/16/10
Kristen was heading to Dallas Friday afternoon, so I wasn't sure I'd get in my evening run. Didn't want to do it, but decided to run in the morning.

It was terrible - for two reasons.

HEAT: Most of my running lately has been at night so I haven't had deal with as much heat & humidity. I think my run would have been decent if not for the sun baking my strength right out of me.

FATIGUE: I normally don't run on Mondays because my legs are typically pretty sore from Sunday. Standing on stage, running around making stuff happen, etc. Usually, I don't run on Monday. If I do, I try to run at night so I at least have some recuperation time. Realized that Friday is much the same. Even though my Thursday night rehearsals are quite as intense, Friday mornings I usually am pretty wiped out.

Tried not to get too discouraged. (Which is tough.) There's always tomorrow, I guess!

SUNDAY, 7/18/10
A few weeks ago, I did an early morning run on Sunday and felt pretty good afterward so I decided to give it another try. As I mentioned in the last post, the likelihood of me running on a Sunday night are pretty much gone by mid-afternoon, so running before church seems to be the best option.

Got outside around 5:30am and run until 6. For this run, I did an 'interval' run. I know, of course, that interval training is good for new runners, but it's been awhile since I did one. I did a 5 min. run / 5 min. walk for twenty or so minutes. This type of exercise is still a huge challenge. I'm still trying to build up my stamina and overall run time, and interval runs often remind me that I'm VERY early in the process.

For this run, I opted to be true to the 5 minute time frame, which meant I ended up running very different routes throughout the morning. (Even tackled the worst hill in the neighborhood! I usually go down this hill rather than up.) Glad I did this run. Thinking about sticking with the interval stuff for the next week or so.

But "I ran 22 minutes" sounds so much better than "I ran 5 minute increments for thirty minutes total!" Guess we'll see next time...

TUESDAY, 7/20/10
Did another interval run. Ran longer sections but still went for overall exercise time as opposed to blasting through a set time period. Folks are right - interval training is hard. As soon as I got out there, my legs were still feeling my Sunday run.

Made the mistake of running my first section too fast. (Guess I got excited.) Finally got slowed down to a decent pace and finished out the run. Probably will do interval runs the rest of this week. I know it's good for me and good leg training. Now, if it could just also be FUN.