Staying motivated

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." -Jules Renard

Today I ran a 5 miler that was supposed to be race pace (7:15/mile). Needless to say, I didn't finish in the 36:15 that I was hoping for. My problem is that I lost my motivation (and I started out too fast). Is it a good idea to just run without paying attention to the time, or should a runner look at their watch at each mile to see how they are doing?
My first mile I felt like I was going fast, but I didn't know exactly how fast I was going. I was thinking that if I didn't run that mile faster than 7:15 that this run was a failure & that I wouldn't be able to finish. I looked at my watch: 6:45. That was waaaaay too fast.
The second mile I tried to slow down, but it was still a little too fast: 7:07. After that I got tired. My third mile was a lot slower because I had been running too fast. I didn't realize how much I slowed down, however, until I looked at that dreaded watch: 7:39. That was waaaay too slow & I lost my motivation.
My legs hurt, my lungs hurt, it was hot, and surprisingly humid. So I walked. I walked for a total of 4:35 and ran 5:34 for the 4th mile. I finished up with an 8:16 5th mile.
This run wasn't a total loss. I learned that I don't know what 7:15 pace feels like. I need to become familiar with this pace so I can achieve my 45 minute 10K goal. I also learned that 7:15 will not feel as hard as 6:45 did. This gives me hope that I will be able to accomplish the task before me.
All in all, I think it is still good to keep track of your progress. Whether it's by your watch or by a pace group. I seem to remember a certain brother of mine that lost motivation as the 3:50 pace group started catching back up to us in Austin. We have to let our mind and body not give up when these progress markers let us know we aren't doing as well as we hoped. We have to keep going and come up with a secondary goal or figure out a way to achieve the primary goal of that run.
I'm just glad that this happened two weeks before my race and not on race day!

my runs (not like Charlotte's)
S - 3 mi, 25:23.42
M - 3.55 mi (tempo), 30:00
T - 3 mi, 25:00.79
W - 5.125 (1 mi warm up, 11x400 repeats, no cooldown), repeat times: 89.28, 90.56, 89.33, 91.06, 90.26, 96.48, 91.05, 95.98, 95.81, 95.33, 90.75
Th - 3 mi, 25:51.52
S - 5 mi (race pace, sort of), 39:54.22

Running Rut

"And the bass keeps running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and running, running, and..." -Black Eyed Peas

Lately I've been slacking on my runs. I'll either skip a day or not run as fast as I should. This may be due to the fact that I got back from vacation about a week ago. That messed up my routine and it's a little hard to get back into the normal flow of things. Also, the semester just ended & I've been trying to get my runs in early instead of in the late afternoon or early evening. It's starting to get too hot to run in the afternoons, but it's hard for me to wake up at 5 or 5:30 if I don't really have to. I can get up that early if I have a morning class, but I can always run later in the day if I want to. The warm and cozy bed just is too hard to get out of to go out on the hard, cold road.
Since I am in training for a goal race, I have made a new rule for myself during this rut. I'm not going to skip another workout before the 10K in June. After that I'll just be running three days a week and I'll start doing some other workouts like yoga, pilates, and some other fun classes that are offered at my gym. They say that varying your workouts will help get you out of the rut, but I can't give up on this training when my goal of a 45 m 10K is in sight. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.

Here's a pic of the boring Horseshoe Bend medal. I told you it was no Prairie Dog Runs medal.






Training:
T: 5.54 mi (tempo), 50:00
W: 5.75 mi (1 mi warm up, 10x400 repeats, 1 mi cooldown), repeat times: 90.51, 91.75, 90.07, 89.49, 89.00, 92.25, 95.39, 93.01, 94.39, 90.75
Th: 3 mi (easy), 25:11.11

Horseshoe Bend Canyon Spring Frolic Race Report

“Perseverance: is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” -Walter Elliott

My running club hosts at least one race every month. This month was an 11 miler called the Horseshoe Bend Canyon Spring Frolic. Basically, it was out in the middle of nowhere and we ran out of a canyon then back into it. It was a lot of fun & pretty cool to have hills on a West Texas race course. The only way we find hills out here is to find a hole in the ground and run out of it.

Mile 1 (8:15.96): I started out a little faster than I wanted to, but I felt really good.
Mile 2 (9:06.26): This was a little slower because we started running out of the canyon. This hill lasted about .75 miles.
Miles 3, 4, and 5 (8:36.57, 8:36.75, 8:37.57): These miles were just a long, flat straightaway. It was nice to be running out there by myself. During these miles I was in 3rd place for the women & I was keeping my pace pretty steady. I ran by a few farms. One of the houses had three goats tied up in the front yard.
Miles 6 & 7 (8:48.76, 8:52.79): I turned onto another straightaway, but now I was fighting the wind. One girl passed me & that was a little disheartening. I thought I might be able to catch her after we got out of the wind. I remember thinking that the view on this stretch of road was awesome. It was like I could see for miles. There were only a few houses to obscure my sight of the horizon. It was pretty cool.
Miles 8 & 9 (9:11.00, 9:30.00): I turned out of the wind, but another girl passed me. I was pretty tired from the wind & the fact that I got passed made me lose some of the motivation to speed up for the last stretch. I decided to just enjoy the last few miles.
Miles 10 & 11 (8:23.81, 8:18.21): These miles were downhill & really nice. This was the only part of the course that was shaded. The trees made a canopy over the road. It reminded me of some of the back roads around where I lived when I was growing up. No one else passed me on this portion of the course, but I didn't pass anyone either. I ended up finishing in 1:36:22 gun time (1:36:18.41 watch time), 20th out of 36, 5th for the women, and 2nd in my age group. The medal from this race is not as good as the Prairie Dog Runs medal; it's pretty plain & simple.
One of the coolest things about this race is that my husband got suckered into volunteering! Maybe he'll volunteer at all the races he goes to now. I think it was good for him to help out & it helped make the time go by faster for him. Volunteers are a huge part of the races we run. We should always make it a point to thank the volunteers & to volunteer every once in a while ourselves.

The past two weeks of training:
M: 4.7 mi (tempo), 43:14.26
T: 5 mi (supposed to be easy, but I skipped lunch [because someone stole it from the fridge]. This was a really hard run!), 48:40.66
W: 3 mi (easy), 28:12.74
Th: 4.63 mi (0.17 mi warm up, 8x400 repeats, 0.92 mi cooldown), repeat times: 87.70, 83.81, 84.31, 86.33, 87.12, 86.55, 85.88, 86.32
S: Race 11 mi, 1:36:22
We left for vacation after the race. I only skipped two of my runs one vacay, but one of them was speedwork. I'll work extra hard to make it up next week though. ;)
S: 3 mi (easy), 26:57.70
M: 3.33 mi (tempo), 30:00
T: 3 mi (easy), 25.38.60
F: 5 K (race pace), 22:18.97 (with approximately 30 s of waiting on crosswalks)

Free shirts

“Fitness has to be fun. If it is not play, there will be no fitness. Play, you see, is the process. Fitness is merely the product.” -George Sheehan

I love things that are “free.” I love the free shirts you get at school sponsored events (i.e. – Homecoming, the opening of the SUB, Arbor Day…). I love the free shirts you get from your sorority/organization’s activities (i.e. – variety shows, pledge week, the infamous toga party…). I LOVE the free shirts you get at races. Sometimes you get two shirts (i.e. – the official race shirt then the finisher’s shirt)! I love wearing my finisher’s shirt the day after the race so everyone can see that I finished. I can run farther than they can. That is, in theory I love these things. You see, I’m pretty small and schools, club presidents, and race directors don’t usually plan on fitting someone my size. However, race directors especially should count on petite athletes showing up to their events. And they should cater to these athletes.
Finding clothes that fit me has always been a problem. It seems like all the medium people out there think they’re small and they always get the last t-shirt before small people, like me. My first marathon ran out of smalls by the time I finished the race, so I was stuck with a medium long sleeved shirt that I can only use to sleep in. My second marathon thought that all of the runner’s were men, so they gave me a men’s small finisher’s shirt. Again, much too large to wear in public. The worst part about this was that in the registration process, they offered x-small as an option but then didn’t have any x-small shirts to give.
There is also the infinite number of free t-shirts you get from other road races. What is the expiration date on one of these shirts? (I have a shirt that’s over 8 years old and has probably seen enough miles to go from here to China and back). Why do we keep these shirts? What should we do with these shirts? Here’s my answer to all these questions. A free race shirt that turned workout shirt should be thrown out when you think the shirt is yellow or grey, but was originally white (especially in the armpit area). The oldest race shirt can also be thrown out when a new shirt is added to the collection.
These shirts act as a reminder of what we accomplished. If you can’t remember all the races you ran in, write it down. Keep your bib number. Take a picture. Don’t make your spouse/significant other/roommate smell your nasty shirt or look at a three foot tall pile of free shirts in the corner. It’s a fire hazard.
A noble thing to do with these shirts is donate them to charity (as long as it's not the 'yellow' shirt). Who cares if the person receiving the shirt didn’t actually run in the proverbial half-fast 5K? They’ll have a shirt on their back. Or, you can use these shirts as cleaning rags. They really provide a streak free clean.

Training:
I'm on vacation, so I'll put two weeks' worth of runs in my next blog. I'll also be reporting back to you my Horseshoe Bend Canyon Spring Frolic race report!

PS - Happy Mother's Day!

Speedwork, Part Deux

“The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.” -Bobby Knight

Tempo runs/race pace runs & hills.
Many runners have different definitions for tempo runs. On my training plan from halhigdon.com it says, "A tempo run is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace." (This specifies 10K race pace because that's the race I'm training for right now). "The pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout."
Jack Daniels, Ph.D. popularized tempo runs and he defines them as, "nothing more than 20 minutes of steady running at threshold pace" [Daniels’ Running Formula (Human Kinetics)]. Dr. Daniels says threshold pace is about 25-30 seconds slower than your 5K pace.
In high school, my coach said tempo runs were just race pace runs. The girls would run two miles as fast as we could and the guys would run a 5K as fast as they could. These were our race distances and we were just trying to mimic race day.
So, basically, a tempo run is a fairly short run (about 20 minutes) run at a pretty fast pace.

Hills provide a good way to get strength training. Basically, you run up a hill fast and then run down it at a pretty slow, recovery pace. You can gradually increase the amount of repeats as you do these workouts consistently. The best way to run up hills is to lift your knees to get a strong pushoff. To go downhill, your best bet is to lean into the hill to where you feel like you're going to fall on your face. This will decrease the pounding and help save your quads. You also want to shorten your strides on the downhills.

That's about all I have for speedwork. The best way to incorporate speedwork into your normal training is to have recovery days after your fast days. Your muscles need time to recover and rebuild. Depending on how advanced of a runner you are you can recover in one of several ways. You can either take the day off complete, do some sort of cross training, or go on easy runs of varying distances. Experiment (starting with the easiest option) and see what works best for you.

Training:
S: 3 mi (easy), 25:00.24
M: 4 mi (easy), 33:13.04
T: 3.87 mi (supposed to be a tempo run), 34:20.81 - My shins were really hurting so I walked a little bit and ran really slowly for parts of this workout.
W: rested b/c of my shins. :(
Th: Speedwork, 2 mi warmup, 7x400 (82 s, 84 s, 87 s, 88 s, 89 s, 89 s, 87 s), 1 mi cooldown
F: rested
S: rested again - for my shins & my allergies are acting up.