Things Bree Hates about Running that Will Make Her a Better Runner

This blog post is dedicated to Josh, who threatened me with it if I didn't stop whining.  :)

1.  Running Outside
I like my hamster wheel.  I like the regularity of the track.  I like that I can run at sunrise, sunset, after dark, in the rain, in the snow, in the heat...and it all feels about the same.  Just the scenery changes (kind of).  I like that there is eye candy.  I like that I can tell myself that I am doing more laps than I can count.  I like playing math games with my lap times.  Heck, I like that I can pace myself with those lap times.  Outside I lose all of those things...but, I gain a harder workout, crunchy leaves, and a change of scenery every few minutes.  I get to think about Pop-Up talking to squirrels (since I don't do those things) and wave at people.  I get to have dogs bark at me and cars roar past.  I get to wonder why my town doesn't feel the need for sidewalks.  So...do I prefer my hamster wheel?  Yes.  Will I get to be a better racer by going outside and dealing with the elements?  Absolutely.  I'm not whining about this one (much) anymore...

2.  Pacing my Laps
For the first month or so of running on the hamster wheel, I had my heart rate monitor set to display total time instead of lap time while I ran.  Every time I would hit the lap time button, it would stop briefly to display the total time at the end of the lap before the total time came back to the display.  Since I was having difficulty with pacing my laps consistently, suggestions were made that I should view the lap time so that I could monitor at the half lap spot to see where I was at with my pacing.  I resisted this suggestion for awhile, but gave it a shot one day and haven't moved back since.  Has it made me a more consistent runner?  Yes.  Does it make it difficult for me to know my total time yes?  Has it made me a faster runner already?  Absolutely.  I'm not whining about this one (at all) anymore either....

3.  Jogging my Recovery Laps during Intervals
This is the one that inspired this blog post.  I have been walking the recovery laps during my interval sessions whether they are short, medium, or long.  It is easier to walk these laps because typically by the time I'm done running the interval distance, I'm tired and out of breath.  This week, for the first time, I aimed to jog the interval laps.  Was it fun?  No.  Was I more tired and out of breath?  Yes.  Did I whine about it when I got home?  Yes.  And threats were made by my friend Josh that inspired this blog post.  (*grin*)  Will doing this make me a better runner?  That's what I'm told...the jury is still out on this one.  (But, probably, I shouldn't be whining about this one anymore either......)

Why Do I Bother?

This week's training sessions saw some interesting ups and downs. 

After four days of 2 mile run sessions, Wednesday dawned as a welcome day off.  But, as Alexa loves to race in the morning, we took off running across the blacktop to Samantha's school.  And that's where I learned my lesson in proper running footwear.  Evidently, ankle boots are not the way to go.  I came down funny on my left foot, overcompensated to the right, and ended up on the blacktop with a skinned knee, a skinned elbow, and a slightly twisted ankle.  I was so glad that Wednesday was a planned day off.

I aborted the run planned for Thursday because of the pain in my foot/ankle and went for a nice, slow walk with Hailey instead.  I was concerned with Friday but thought I would just take it slow.  I was still aiming for Saturday as a 2 1/2 mile run to push myself a little further this week.  Like I said, why do I bother?

1 1/2 miles into the run, I felt good and my foot wasn't bothering me at all.  I was definitely going slower than usual but I was having a hard time judging because I wasn't on my usual track.  I was at a 12 laps to a mile track instead and my lap times were totally different.  So, I decided to aim for 3 miles instead.  And, once I hit 3, I couldn't just leave it there.  So, I finished off another quarter mile at a much faster pace (about 12min/mile pace).  And, as I was leaving the gym, I thought to myself, I so could have gone further at that slower pace.  I ended up running a little over 53 minutes, which is pretty close to that 60 minute goal.

So, new goal again?  Not really..I still have two goals for November that I haven't yet really hit.  The first is to run continuously for 60 minutes.  Most likely, I will hit that on Tuesday with my long run.  The second....to get my average steady mile pace down to 14:00.  With my new training schedule courtesy of Josh (thanks!), I am absolutely confident that I will hit that before Thanksgiving!

(On a housekeeping note, I have changed the settings so all of you who don't want google accounts can now post onto the blog....)