Photo from Mount Royal, Frisco, Colorado.

"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Fleeceless

I am running faster and faster. And it's incredible how easy and fun it is.

Went out for my 8 mile tempo run today. First 5k in 21:59, 10k in 43:59 and 8 miles in 56:20. I shaved almost 1 minute off my time from two weeks ago. Man this is exciting. Again, a recap of my 8 mile tempo times since the fall

67:00
62:33
59:53
63:47 (snowstorm)
57:14 (2 weeks ago)
56:20 (today)

I am at just over a 7 minute per mile pace (or a 4:20/km pace). I know this doesn't sound fast, but it's just practice. And the route has hills and it's still cold out. I am convinced I could run a (perhaps big) 10k PR in a race. And who know what this means for the Copenhagen Marathon in May (oh, yeah, I have my period now, so now pregnancy yet)...

This mixture I have of tempos, long runs and intervals is incredibly effective. I am almost to the point of hating pointless running. Swimming and yoga fill a big part of my exercise life now that I run less junk miles. I am also looking forward to biking more now that the weather is getting better (gotta start training for the August Ironman in Copenhagen).

I am so averse to the idea of running pointless miles that I actually didn't run back to the woods after my tempo to go pick up my fleece. I realized it was a symbol that I was no longer the type of runner who runs with a fleece. When I run, I get hot. I always hated that ugly fleece anyway (I bought it at Sears!?). Later when I drove by the woods with the kids, I got out of the car and got the fleece. I felt too bad about leaving it there. Life is never that poetic anyway.

Though life was pretty close to perfect, if only temporarily, when I was at swim lessons with the kids today. Natali was practicing diving with her class and The Lorax and I were in a parent-child class swimming, laughing and batting a ball back and forth in the sunlight. Then The Lorax turned pale and said "cookie". Oh, no. He had shit in his swim diapers again.

Running Song of the day: Police Bells and Church Sirens by Nephew (this song really carried me through my tempo today. I listened to it 4 times in a row.)

5 comments:

PiccolaPineCone said...

You have PBs coming your way for sure! Is the 1/2 marathon you have on your racing schedule for April a road half without too many hills?

Mapp said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Danni said...

So, SR was right??? :-)

sea legs girl said...

Piccola/Leslie, Yeah it's a road half marathon without hills, but only two weeks after the 50 miler, so if it is a PB, it might not be a big one.

Sounds wonderful, Marie-Aline. Oh I am jealous of your location...

Danni, yes, one could say he was right. I only hope he doesn't start charging me money for coaching me.

Alex and Sandhya said...

Just wanted to say you inspired me to shift my longtime interval workout to do a very modest version of your one-mile intervals -- it was so interesting to try a different type of physical exertion. Thanks for the idea!