after a short (2.5mi) run friday after work that felt fantastic (no lingering fever related fatigue), the busy weekend conspired against me. too many obligations to other's, not enough obligation to myself and my training.
the weekend ended with a HUGE dinner at the home of some family friends. my over indulgence didn't bother me from a caloric sense, but it seriously paralyzed me. i was in a food (and wine) coma by the time i got home, so any idea of running sunday night was buried under salmon ball, lasagne and cheesecake. yes, oh yes, cheesecake. when plain ol' cake isn't rich enough, why not add cheese! i was in pain. running was out of the question unless i desired to present the contents of my stomach to unsuspecting (and undeserving) passers by.
the topics of conversation sunday evening included the usuals - sex and religion. prior being exposed to a little more information than i needed about my parents' sex life (thankyouverymuch...please pass the brain bleach), we talked running/training over appetizers. kenny and i are a study in contrasts in working toward our common goal of bloomsday. he is as methodical as i am fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. but we're each going about this in the way that works for us. structure v. freeform. i don't do well with regimented structure. i'll set the goal, give myself a rough outline (in this case, hal's 10K for novices training schedule), but i need room to flex and improvise. this, however, does not mean i won't push myself, so when brother recommended that i work some hills into my running, i took this under advisement.
tonight, i ran 3.5 miles in 35 minutes. that's 10 minute miles. i'm slowly knocking seconds of time off my miles. but what i was most excited about was that i switched my route to include a hill. i ran up 15th to fremont, and then east on fremont to 33rd. there is a small hill (not a grade or an incline but a bonafide hill) as fremont reaches 33rd. about 4-5 blocks worth of hill. i felt it for sure, but i kept running (bonus points for running uphill into a headwind!!!). as i reached the top, i started to feel that familiar nausea from over exertion. but i recovered quickly as i started running down 33rd toward knott.
i'm beginning to think i can do this. no shit.
5 comments:
Food comas suck. Hills suck. Doomsday Hill sucks. Andy Card sucks. George Bush sucks. War sucks. Too much work to do sucks.
Spring vacation, T-minus 10 days and counting, rules!
agreed. suckage sucks.
spring break? what is that??
Boof must still have a hangover from the UW-UConn fiasco. Sorry, Boof.
Anyway, perfect lead in, sister, for a training technique I've been meaning to share with you...the "fartlek". It doesn't get any better sounding than that, does it? It is Swedish for "speed play", meaning you accelerate and slow down according to how you feel. (How Heather!) In the book it says (How European!)
The American version is called the "step-down fartlek" which follows a structured pattern (e.g. 75% full effort for 5 minutes, 40% effort for 5 minutes, etc.) More my style! Repeat the fast-slow pattern, shortening the fast segment each interval and increasing speed until the last 1 minute segment you are all out sprinting.
I figure the Swedish fartlek is for you. One of the best ways to increase times at distance is to run shorter distances at a faster pace and work your way up. I figured you could use the fartlek in your regular runs to help increase overall speed.
Credit to Ed Eyestone in Men's Health Training Guide 2006 for the fartlek definition.
heh heh... you said FARTLEK...
I thought you were going to tell us about your "fart leek" when you run on the tred mill.
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