Training musings

So..my running is going well! Hurray! After a couple of weeks of "OMG, my legs have forgotten how to run", I finally feel light and springy on my feet. What a relief! I took myself to the track on Monday for 15X200m, with the goal of running these at 5K to mile pace (which I conservatively set to be 5Kpace-30 seconds). I had done nothing but a few 10 sec hill sprints and one 10x20 secs strides run on the treadmill, so I had no idea how I'd do. Most importantly, I was worried I lost my joy for the track (the track is one of my favorite places to run. I could even run a marathon on the track, no problem). I am fine with getting slower (not yet, but it will happen), but I am not OK with losing my love for the track:) The thing is, I was absolutely amazed that I did not lose any of my high end speed. I lost endurance for sure, and 13 miles seems a bit too far to go these days, but my speed is still there. I yearned to do an all out interval, but managed to stay within my time constraints. And I had so much fun. There might be some track races in my future once I become a masters runner!

And speaking of love...I am also running a lot of trails. Chris and I have been running the Skyline Trail in the Fells (7.5 miles with the detour, 1300 feet elevation gain) once a week for the past 2 weeks, and are having so much fun that will keep this up. This trail is all up and down, with very steep inclines and declines. It is also very technical with huge rocks that one needs to climb, so that it becomes more of a plyometric/strength type exercise done @ 12-14 min miles, which is just perfect for where I am in my training. First, I need strength. Second, the pace of this run totally kills my average weekly run pace in my Runningahead account which is GOOD for someone like me who has a bit of a pace/ego thing going on that needs to be tamed:) Plus, Chris and I have always had the best conversations while running/hiking, and he gets to channel his inner macho by protecting me from the unleashed dogs whose owners are going about their business while their dogs almost chew my shorts off (it happened, but rant over!).

So...if you are curious, my week goes something like this:

M: a.m. intervals/fartlek type workout; p.m. 30 min elliptical + core while Petru swims.
Tue: p.m. very very easy run on trails with no watch/HR monitor, some hill sprints.
Wed: a.m. progression by HR; p.m. spin class + strength legs
Thursday: a.m. Fells trail run; p.m. 30 min elliptical+ core
Friday: p.m swim
Saturday: a.m. long; strength; p.m. swim as a family maybe
Sunday:  a.m. spin class+short easy run immediately after with strides no watch/HR monitor; p.m.

Feels like a routine, ha? Will see where it takes me.

I am not training for anything right now, and am just working on getting my baseline mileage and speed back. The plan is to kill the half marathon this winter/spring, and maybe some 5Ks and 10Ks too in the process. You know, the stuff I LOVE. Would be nice if the killing would result in some PRs; the 10K PR will be easy since I have yet to race a 10K, but the other 2 will be challenging. I am up for it though. I will be using Canova/Hudson training principles incorporating a lot of what I learned from Lucho during the past year. I am excited to write my own workouts and see what I can do. Fall and winter (call me crazy!) and my favorite seasons for running, and I am getting giddy for the miles!