New Year, New Shoes, New Goals.

No. 1 - New Year.  So, J and I had an unintentionally chill New Year's Eve.  We went to dinner at a new-to-me restaurant downtown, and it was awesome.  Then the plan was to go swing by a house party thrown by some friends, and then get a cab back downtown to the big party on Main Street.  Unfortunately, I called the cab company six times, was repeatedly told that cabs were on the way, and of course, none ever showed up.  So frustrating.  Around 11:15, almost 3 hours of trying, we finally gave up and just went home to ring in 2012 on the couch with the pups.


No. 2 - New Shoes.  Earlier in the day, when I was still anticipating a hangover today, I headed out to do my tempo run for the week.  The plan was 5 miles at an 8:40 pace.  Honestly, I thought that I was going to crush this run.  I've been doing paces much faster than this, and on last week's 7 miler, I felt really good and had to work to hold myself back to this pace.  But yesterday, I felt like doo doo.  I wanted water like half a mile in, and my legs were super heavy from the 100+ squats I had done at Crossfit on Wednesday.  It was probably my least favorite run so far.


The only good part was my new shoes.  I went to Fleet Feet last week to be fitted for some real running shoes.  (I've been running in my Crossfit shoes, which are cross trainers.)  I'm hoping these new kicks are going to help my shins feel better, but even if they don't, I like them anyway.

{New Mizunos}

No. 3 - New Goals.  Ok, so now on to the good stuff.  Not all of these are running/fitness goals, but here goes.

1. Run sub-2 hours at my half in March.  That means I'll have to do at least 9:04.  I'd really like to run more like 8:40, which would give me a 1:53:36, but I'm not sure if that's possible... especially after this last run.

2.  Finish a marathon.  Preferably in about 4 hours, but I will definitely be happy with just crossing the finish line.  If anyone has any thoughts on a good beginner marathon, I'd love to hear it.  I'm thinking about the Marine Corps Marathon in October.  Is it crazy to sign up for your first marathon before you've even run your first half?

3.  Do a pull up.  I need to learn how to kip,  because I'm pretty confident that I can do kipping pull ups.  I'm really close to getting a regular dead hang, so hopefully I can knock this one out in the next few months.

4.  Eat more veggies.  I probably only get 2 servings of fruits/veggies per day right now, and I'd like to double it.  Sub-parts to this goal include going to the farmer's market at least once a month, and talking J into doing a CSA this summer.

5.  Travel to 3 new places.  One of the things J and I talked about wanting to do during these "just the two of us" years is to really put our time/money into traveling.  It's not always easy since we're both at the bottom of the totem pole in our jobs (which is, truly, a place I am deeply thankful to be ), but we're talking about San Francisco/Napa in the fall.  And we have a friend moving to Nashville, so that's on the list too.  Hopefully we can squeeze in a third at some point.

Evil Intervals.

These were terrible.  I wanted to puke, and my shins were on fire.  Also, it was colder than 55 degrees, which is my personal definition of freezing.


The plan was 6 x 800 @ 3:58 pace.  As usual, I was too fast.


My actual times were 3:27, 3:30, 3:38, 3:30, 3:27, 3:39.  I really need to slow down.  Here's the problem -  I have a huge ego.  I can't let people pass me.  I can't go slow when people are watching (because everyone else who's out running is obviously watching me, instead of their Garmins).  I need to get over this.

Tempo Run: Lakefront Edition

I've been majorly slack on the blogging lately, but I haven't been slack on my running at least.  I've done two interval runs that have gone undocumented.  This tempo run that I did on the day after Christmas was my favorite training run so far.


I thought for sure it was going to be horrible - I was running late in the afternoon, hadn't really eaten anything, and I had indulged rather freely on Christmas dinner and Christmas cocktails the day before.  But once I actually got out and did it, I felt fantastic.  My breathing was awesome, and nothing was achy until the very end when I started feeling my hip flexors a little bit.  Plus, I was running in my parents' neighborhood which is just hilly enough to keep things interesting, the lake and oak trees are beautiful, and the temperature was perfect.

{Backyard} 

The plan was 7 miles - 1 @ easy pace (10:00), 2 @ MT (8:40), 1 easy, 2 MT, 1 easy.  

Mile 1 - 9:46

Mile 2 - 8:36

Mile 3 - 8:36

Mile 4 - 9:42

Mile 5 - 8:30

Mile 6 - 8:31

Mile 7 - 9:32

J got me a Garmin Forerunner 405 for Christmas, so from here on out, my splits will be all official looking.  Hold on to your hats, peeps!

Tempo Run: Riverfront Edition

On today's agenda was a 5 mile short tempo run.  Since I had such a problem pacing myself last week in DC, I was really looking forward to running down by the canal/river with miles of stoplight-free paths.  

But as it turns out, my pacing problems had much more to do with my reading comprehension skills than the downfalls of city running.


See... I downloaded a running app that displays my pace and lets me track my splits.  The problem is that it's an average pace.  To anyone with a brain, the word "average" would give it away... yeah, except I thought that meant the average pace for the mile you're currently running, not the average across all miles total.  Durh.  That's what splits are for, Lindsey.


So that explains why I've been feeling like I'm KILLING myself on these short tempo runs.  The plan was to start off with a slow 10:20ish mile, then speed up to around 8:46 for the next 3 miles.  But I haven't been able to get my "pace" to go down to the 8:40-50 range without me feeling like I am at an all-out sprint.  Because yeah, if my first mile is 10:20, then I had to run 7:30 on mile 2 to get to an 8:45 AVERAGE.  


Fortunately, I figured all of this out today around mile 1.5.  Unfortunately, it didn't help that much because I still ran too fast.  I really need to slow my roll and enjoy the scenery more.

Mile 1 - 10:04

Mile 2 - 8:01 

Mile 3 - 8:19

Mile 4 - 8:04

Mile 5 - 9:42

Wayyyyyy too fast. Oopsie.  

Race Face.

Y'all have probably all seen this image circulating on Facebook/the blogs/Pinterest.  It is hilarious, and it makes me laugh every time I see it.  It became, less funny, however, when I received hard proof that I do, in fact, look more like the bottom half of that picture than the top half.

*Image via here.

Here is my real life version...

*Images via here and here.

Yeah.  I need to work on my Race Face.  Anyone else have this problem?

Tempo Run: DC Edition.

This weekend I was in DC to visit my best friend D in our old stomping grounds.  In between the eating, drinking, and shopping, I did my first tempo run of 6 miles - more than I've run in at least 2 years.  I ran from Dupont through Georgetown and back, with some random loops here and there to tack on mileage.  I still consider DC "my city" since it was such a huge part of my life for a long time, so it was really fun to  do this run.  Plus, Georgetown is gorgeousssss.

*Image via here.

I had issues with my pacing, although my splits turned out semi-ok in the end.  I really have NO idea what a 10 minute mile feels like compared to an 8 minute mile, except one is obviously faster.  


My goal was to run 2 miles at 10:21 (easy), then 3 miles at 8:46 (short tempo pace), then the last mile at 10:21 again.  What I learned is that 10:21 is uncomfortably slow and 8:46 is borderline uncomfortably fast.  A big part of the problem was that I had to stop, constantly, for lights/crosswalk signals... so my pace would jump way up to 13:00/mile, I'd panic and go way too fast when I got the light, and then before I knew it, I would be at 7:30/mile.  It seemed to even out alright in the end, but I felt like I couldn't settle into a rhythm at all.


Mile 1: 10:21
Mile 2: 10:15
Mile 3: 8:31
Mile 4: 8:47
Mile 5: 8:50
Mile 6: 10:15


Nevertheless, it was cold, I was running solo, going farther than I have in a looooong time, and trying to pace myself for the first time, so I consider this one a success.

12/1: Intervals

Oh man, today was my first scheduled training run for the half marathon I'm doing in March.  I was really nervous about it because I'm basing all of my training paces off of my best 5K time... which was run in Florida (in other words, the route was gloriously flat and fast).  Columbia is surprisingly hilly, so I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to stick to pace when you factor in hills.  


So here's the workout:


10 min warm up
12 x 400 at 1:57 pace + 90 sec RI
Cool down


And guess what?  I ran at or better than my goal pace for 10 out 12 intervals.  Bam!


1:51, 1:53, 1:52, 1:54, 1:52, 1:53, 1:55, 1:55, 158: 1:57, 1:58, 1:54.


Honestly, I probably ran a little too fast.  I tried to figure out how to adjust down to stick closer to 1:57, but it just wasn't happening, so I let my legs do what they wanted to do.  I was seriously sucking wind by the end of it, but I was proud of myself for hitting my pace.  (Howwwww did I ever run the 400m in high school track?  I ran that shizz in 64 seconds one time.  Oh to be 17 again.)


So that's what I did for exercise today.  


This is what Penny did (for hoursssss... poor Charlie):