"Ultimately, the best runners are the ones who are willing to work very hard but who have a little bit of a lazy streak in them."
Benji Durden, Coach
I love that this quote validated my very lazy decision to skip my tempo run last week. I had been feeling a bit guilty about it but no more. My laziness will make me the best runner I can be! Thanks Coach! Seriously though, I have definitely got a lazy streak in me lately! Seems that I'm proving that with every day and every run that goes by without a simple bleep on the bloggy world radar. Sheer laziness! Well, I have been crazy busy with life in general, too. You know the usual suspects- running the kids here to there, cleaning the house in preparation of a visit from the in-laws (they come tomorrow!) and trying to squeeze in my runs in the absence of any real downtime. Exhausting. So, here's a little of my training thus far this week-
Tuesday- long run- 12 miles- 9:28 pace
I dropped Little Red off at preschool and headed out to blaze new (to me) trails. My favorite local trail is closed due to the construction of a bridge (until Fall 2011 no less) so I'm looking for a new route for my long runs. I ran about 6 miles around some neighborhoods north of here and started to get some IT band pain (dang road camber!) so I decided to head home a finish up on the treadmill. Once I got home, I had done about 8.3 miles. I jumped on the treadmill and ran the final 3.7 and rewarded myself with some slow, PAINFUL stretches on the foam roller. Hurts so bad but gotta love the magic in that roller. I wouldn't be running without it!
All in all, a good run but not a good route. My IT band hated it. I need to keep looking...
Today's run- 3x1600 intervals- 8:27 pace
Let me preface this by saying I never run in the early mornings. Like never ever. Well, maybe 7 or 8 am once in a blue moon but never 5:30-6:30 in the morning. I'm just not a morning person. That's why it's worth noting that today I ran at 6:30...in the morning! Crazy. You see at about 6:20 I awoke from this terrible nightmare (and of course, I don't remember even a bit of it now) and did not want to go back to sleep so I decided to go ahead and try to get in as much as my run before having to get the boys out of bed and ready for school. I was dressed and on the treadmmill by 6:27. My training plan called for a 20 min warm-up with 4x1600s at an 8:17 pace. I knew I wouldn't have all that much time so I got in about a 5 min warm up and 3x1600s instead of 4. And then a 5 min cool down. So, a run that would've normally got me 7 or so miles ended up being 4.2. I'll take it!
The best part if having my run done before the boys got up? While Little Red was at preschool, I went shopping. For 3 blissful hours!!! Maybe early morning runs aren't such a bad thing after all.
My plans for this weekend include a 10k training "race" with the local running club + a couple extra warm up and cool down miles. I've never met with this running club so I'm looking forward to it!
