I want to say happy first day of Spring but since we are expecting some sort of snowstorm in New York, I am not so sure that today is truly the first day of Spring. At least not here.
I am trying not to dwell on needing to shovel or the fact that I will have to run on the treadmill in the morning because “Spring” snowstorms usually melt fairly quickly and are often forgotten within a blink of an eye.
Instead let’s talks about week #2 of Long Island Half Marathon training! I love working Laura, as I knew I would. It’s nice to have someone so interested in hearing about my runs each day and as the days are passing, I am catching on to the reasons she chose the specific workouts listed in my training plan.
I also appreciate how friendly and flexible she is, so willing to make changes and tweaks to the plan she put together to accommodate things like my schedule, the weather, and how I feel.
So far we have not made adjustments but have talked about different possibilities should I need to run more indoors on the treadmill instead of outside, scaling things back if I need to during my period and other little tweaks to the workouts in the plan just to ensure as best as possible that my paces for race day feel like second nature.
Monday – 7 Miles (treadmill)
This was the start of my daylight savings week of runs. Nothing too exciting here, just my first treadmill run in a while.
This was also the morning when I first tried Pop Sugar’s workout for runners which I mentioned in Thursday’s post. Did you try it yet?
Tuesday – 8 Miles (Ugh, the treadmill!)
Mentally this run was crazy challenging! I did not want to run on the treadmill again today and I was totally in a mood. It didn’t help that my favorite treadmill was taken when I got to my gym and then the treadmill I had to use not only had a slightly weird feeling belt under my feet but a television that refused to turn on. Bleh.
But I did it! The plan for today was 5 miles easy followed by 3 progression miles based upon effort. It is much easier for me to run by effort outside so I tried to just play with the speed button during the last 3 miles and increase it as I felt I could.
Miles 1 – 5: easy between 6.3 – 7.0
Miles 5 – 8: between 7.0 – 8.0 but held most between 7.5 -7.7
Wednesday – Pure Barre Studio Series DVD & 3 Recovery Miles
Two treadmill runs in a row combined with being sore from that 10 minute workout from Monday left me wanting a short recovery run at a really easy pace. Since I averaged 10:30 per mile, I think I accomplished just that.
Thursday – 7 Miles
2 mile warm up + 2 x 15 minutes at a tempo pace with 3 minutes recovery in between + cool down
I started this run inside on the treadmill. I figured doing the warm up inside made sense and then once it was light outside, I could finish things up.
Since this run went by time intervals, the mile pacing is not exactly indicative of my effort but I am pretty sure I hit the ranges I was supposed to.
Friday – Pure Barre Tone in 10 & 3.25 Easy Miles
Today’s Tone in 10 Combo:
- Arms & Abs
- Thighs & Abs < – seriously the hardest workout of all six Tone in 10 workouts!
- Seat & Abs
- Back & Cool down
It looks like a lot of ab work but the ab sections are sneaky in some of these workouts. The seat & ab workout especially, it totally sneaks in the ab working sections (if you missed my Tone in 10 series review, check it out here).
I decided to try using my 5 lb weights for a change during the arm segment. It doesn’t sound like a lot of weight but when you are doing little isometric movements, it’s really challenging! I was able to do more than I thought with the 5 lb weights but did switch to the 3 lb weights for certain exercises.
Saturday – 12 Miles
The plan for today was 7 miles easy followed by 4 miles of 2 minutes hard/2 minutes recovery plus a 1 mile cool down. This was fun!
The first 7 miles went by really fast (about an hour) and then I started timing myself. I kept thinking it was hard but then would say to myself, where does it feel the hardest? I checked in with my legs which felt fine (fine is a relative term here) and my breathing told me I was working but I knew I had more to give as I was not totally out of breath.
I like doing those types of check-ins while running to help me see just how capable I am and prevent getting caught up in negative thinking. Don’t get me wrong – this is a challenging workout! But, I can do it.
Again, my splits are not indicative of the timed intervals between miles 7 – 11 but here they are anyway.
Sunday- Rest Day (no running!)
I could use some yoga in my life.
Previous Long Island Half Marathon Recaps:
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Is it supposed to snow by you today?
Who is running the NYC half today or another race? Good luck!
Best thing you ate so far this weekend?
The Cookie ChRUNicles 