6 miles

yes, I know I'm having blog post diarrhea. forgive me, just hadn't felt up to writing much until now.

I'll start with Wednesday after my speed session. I had a softball game Wednesday night. I came home with the souvenir of a lovely strawberry on the back of my upper right thigh. My first thought after I slid was, "I'm not as young as I used to be." Now, I'm not old by any stretch of the imagination, but getting closer to 30 and realizing my body isn't what it was when I was trying this stuff in my teens. Ah well, it was worth it.  I was going to do my long run on Thursday, but due to the aforementioned injury...it wasn't a wise idea. Thursday night a group of people from the local running group went out for a carb loading dinner prior to everyone else (but me and one other) running in a half or full marathon this weekend.

Friday, I dropped my kids off at school and daycare. I was dressed for my run before leaving the house so I would have NO excuse to not run. The weather wasn't looking too promising, so instead of the out and back route that I really wanted to do, I chose the Arboretum which has a 2 mile loop. That way if the weather got bad, I could fairly quickly get back to my car and get out of there. They also have indoor bathrooms and a water fountain which is always a plus!

So I set off. Originally, I was going to do 8, but then decided I wanted to test myself at 6 miles to see what I need to improve on since the next race I'm really training for is a 10k. I had never really set out to do just 6 miles before, I looked back over my RunKeeper data and the last 6 miler I did was on the treadmill in 1:30:00 back in February. The first mile I did in 13:30, I decided that was a good pace and figured I should try and stay around that. Second mile completed in 13:24. A little faster, but still keeping about the same pace. I stopped at my car after this mile for a quick swig of water. Went back out for my 3rd mile and did that in 13:17, progressively getting a little faster each time. Fourth mile completed in 12:55. I stopped and used the port a potty (which did not have toilet paper, ugh!) and swigged some water. Fifth mile was a little slower at 13:07, but not too shabby. My last mile was the fastest at 12:33.  So, my 6 mile experiment without really pushing myself was completed in 1:18:51.

J and L think I can complete the 10k in July in under 1:10:00. I'm not so sure, looking at the mile pace that I'd have to keep up...kind of throws me. But, I will push myself a bit more in my training runs. I know I can consistently run a 12:30ish for 4 miles. I need to get down to an 11:17 pace to make this possible. So, I guess when I go out for my tempo runs, I'm going to push myself to run 11 minute miles for the part where I'm pushing the pace.

Runs for this week:

Monday-hoping for speed work if possible.
Tuesday- 4 miles
Wednesday- long run
Thursday/Friday- rest or pilates
Saturday- 5k race...goal is 33 minutes. friend is running with me, she is faster and is planning on pushing me a long.