Feet Move Forward

Holy wow. Six weeks in already. Planned: 55 miles Actual: 43.5 miles Monday Rest Rest Tuesday 8 miles plus 10 x 100 meter strides Stuck to the roads around the lakes to hit some hills.  Did strides on flat path by my house and felt like a freak sprinting back and forth while bikers and runners were going by. I need a shirt or something that says "Not crazy, just a runner." But maybe we're all crazy. Wednesday 12 miles 12 miles, 1:30, 7:33 average pace. Cooler night with almost no humidity. Nights like this are why I am a runner. Thursday 5 mile recovery 5 miles, 45:46; 8:33 average pace Easy run around Isles. Friday & Saturday- RAGNAR RELAY 10 miles and 5 miles recovery 18.24 miles total over three legs. Full recap to come. Sunday 15 miles Off. Rest. Sleep. Food. In case you missed it: Richmond Marathon Training Week 5 Richmond Marathon Training Week 4 Richmond Marathon Training Week 3 Richmond Marathon Training Week 2 Richmo...

Planned: 63 miles Actual: 63 miles Monday Rest Rest Tuesday 9 miles w/ 5 @ 1/2 pace 9 miles, 1:09; 7:40 average, tempo miles at 7:03, 6:55, 6:48, 6:52, and 7:04. Not a very evenly paced effort but it was decent. Wednesday 14 miles 14.16 miles, 1:55, 8:07 average pace Trails at Hyland with R.E.D. Ran the trail loop faster than we'd ever done and my legs were trashed. Did two laps around Normandale to round out my mileage for the day. Thursday 5 mile recovery 5 miles, 38:35, 7:43 average pace Easy AM run around Calhoun. Friday 12 miles 12 miles, 1:33, 7:44 average pace Ran Greenway to Lakes to Parkway. Out and back. Took hills on the route when I had the option. Tired. Saturday 5 mile recovery 5.17, 47:20; 9:10 average pace Ran with my brother. Easy, conversational run. Sunday 18 miles w/ 10 miles @ Goal Pace 18 miles, 2:23; 7:58 average pace Goal Pace Fail. I knew right away this was going to be a bad run. I could barely hold a sub-8. I br...

On Sunday this gem landed in my possession: That's the Le Sueur News Herald. And that's the front page of the sports section. I was pumped because I didn't have any pictures from the 5K I ran .  Now you can see why Fast Girl looked so intimidating. I was exclaiming, "Oh, sweet!" as I unfolded the paper and saw this below the fold: Uh oh. We all know how I can't take a decent race picture to save my life. I was scared to look closer. Heel strike much? Ugh. What a horribly awkward photo. I don't even know where to begin with this. The icing on the cake was my mom calling me yesterday morning: Mom: Hey, you're on the front page of the paper. Me: Yep, I know. It's a horrible picture. Mom: Yeah, when I was watching you run I was thinking you need a tighter sports bra. Your boobs were moving. Me: Yeah, well, they're pretty big. I already have an industrial strength sports bra. Mom: It looks like it hurts when they...

 The Green Giant and I had a brief love affair last summer. Okay, as promised, my 5K race recap from the Giant's Valley 5K I ran last Saturday. This is another one of those small town 5Ks. I grew up in Le Sueur, the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. It's our only claim to fame. Last year I was the first female with a time of 21:06 so I felt like I had to go back and defend my title. Pre-Race I hadn't registered in advance so I got there at 7 a.m. to register and begin my warm up. When I was walking out to my car to drop off my stuff after registering and saw a girl warming up. She. Looked. Fast. Really thin, hot pink sports bra and short shorts, doing drills. If you're doing drills and strides before a 5K, you generally know what you're doing. Mind you this was like an hour before the race started. She was there to win. Eesh. This is the participant shirt. I think the art is really creative. I ran my warm-up with a friend and then ...

Four weeks down already. I wish I could say that I was feeling better about how my training has been going. And the first week of August is gone. How the heck did that happen? Planned: 62 miles Actual: 58.75 miles Monday Rest Did core and some upper body in my apartment, mostly because I was feeling lazy. It's hard to completely rest! Tuesday 9 miles w/ 10 x 100 meter strides 9.15 miles, including warm up and cool down Track workout. 6 x 800 meters at half marathon pace (6:50) with quarter mile jog in between intervals. I'm not going to lie, this was too easy a workout for me. I didn't get the memo that R.E.D had moved their workout to St. Paul so I ended up on the Edina track with just one other person. I gave him the choice between mile repeats and 800s. He chose the 8s. We should've been running them at tempo or interval pace but it was nice to get the rhythm down for what my half pace will need to be come fall. Wednesday 14 miles 7.3 miles, trails ...

Alternate title: The Week of Almost No Running So this week wasn't so great. This has been the lowest mileage week I've run in a couple months, though not by choice. I feel a little guilty for not spending more time in the gym but I think the mental break did some good, too. I'd much rather take a few days now than a few weeks later on! Planned: 58 miles Actual: 33 miles Monday Rest Rest. Easy peasy. Tuesday 11 miles Track workout with R.E.D . 16 x 200 meters @ 45 seconds, 200 meter jog recovery. Kept all of these slightly under goal pace. It was easier than I thought it would be but the last few were still tough. Added a longer cool down on to get mileage up to 10.5 for the day. Wednesday 13 miles Since I was planning on running the Rice Street Mile, I wanted to break my mileage into two. I went out for 7 miles at an easy pace (7:55 average) in the morning. Throughout the day, my right hip was really tight so I decided to forgo a second run in favor of a b...