Well, since I last checked in from my awesome, yet challenging, half marathon I have been quite busy. Immediately after I crossed the finish line 70 seconds late, I vowed to kick some butt and be ready to tackle my next 13.1 by the end of spring. Now that I've had a few days to let things settle, I'm not quite sure if I'm wanting to jump back into training so quickly.
So instead I've decided to take a completely radical approach- I'm going to just let the cards fall where they may. What, relaxed Alex? Non-planning Alex? Are pigs flying? No, no. I'm just taking a breather, I think.
I am going to continue my speed work during the week and long runs during the weekend, but not put myself on any schedule. If by late April I feel prepared, I'm going to dominate a half. Like, I'm going to make it beg for me to never come back...cry that my Asics ever stepped foot on it's asphalt.
Speaking of Asics, my new pair came in this week! And yes, they are the exact same pair...why fix it if it isn't broken?! I trained plum through my last pair.
And speaking of getting in some good runs, I had a easy and slow recovery run on Saturday, tackling 8 miles around my neighborhood.
Then yesterday I picked it up for a 4 mile tempo run. We are having incredibly beautiful weather here in northwest Arkansas so it was the perfect day to take the dogs to the dog park. I had the inventive idea of running to the park (plus a few detours) to meet Josh with the pups. Two birds, one stone. Only thing was the entire run was uphill, with ridiculous head wind. Yuck! I hate hills, and I only tolerate them because you always get the reward of running down them...except if you are only running one way. Despite the mountains and life threatening wind (over dramatic, never...), I still managed an average 9:48 pace.
And the reward? Getting to see my furr-balls have a blast. They wear themselves out!
So, the new plan? No plan...except what my running coach Nora recommends I do. Yea, that's right. I have a running coach. She is pretty awesome and excepts payments of BBQ and KrispieTreats.
This may seem counter productive: No plan + running "coach"= confusing. Look, I don't make the rules people. I'm just running.
Is it just me, or did I miss your recap that you were going to post? How did you do on your 1/2 marathon?
ReplyDeleteThis is great, friend. Grabbing life by the horns and not making a schedule. Life on the wild side, I tell ya. SOmetimes we just all need a breather!
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to ask about some definitions (that sounds totally lame). Tempo runs? Recovery runs? PR? Corral? You can totally tell I am an amateur. I have started to follow your Yasso post- and started doing them in my own runs. Maybe like a modified version.
And what do you think about when you run? My mind starts to wander around, oh i dunno, mile 2. Boo
Gosh, why didn't I email you this??