I’m ambling along in training, slowly building back up the fitness I left behind at the end of last season. This week we ran our long run on Good Friday. It was a rather uneventful 12k – peaceful, easy. As always, lovely to catch up with fellow runners! The best part of 12k is returning home and realizing you still have the whole morning stretching before you!
Distance: 11.82
Time: 1.13.34
Elevation: 103m
Average pace: 6.16min/km
It’s funny – I can’t believe I am calling a 12k run relaxing and pleasant, but it was! I look forward to the day when I can call a 20k+ run relaxing and pleasant. Despite my belief that the pace sped up towards the last few kms, I realize we kept a pretty consistent pace throughout the session. The km splits had the following paces:
6.27 / 6.22 / 6.35 / 6.11 / 6.10 / 6.28 / 6.08 / 5.57 / 6.16 / 6.28 / 6.01 / 6.05
Next week I begin moving up to the 16k runs. Eek! Time goes too quickly! 16k will be tough. And I’ll miss the days of 12k runs.
Showing posts with label 12k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 12k. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Running with Bicycles
Off we went on out adventure! Me and my awesome bicycle escorts. We negotiated a later start time than I'm used to (7.30am). It was hot, but lots of fun. My legs started feeling it after 9kms and I realized how much fitness I've actually lost!It was a lovely slow run. At times I ran beside my cycling friends and we talked. At times they buzzed ahead to take photos of me as I approached, or paused at a water fountain for a drink. I kept chugging along at a not-too-fast pace.
Total distance: 12km
Total time: 1.18.38
Total elevation: 95m
Average pace: 6.33min/km
I managed to keep a fair pace despite the heat until km 9, when my lack of conditioning began to show. At this point, my quads started to fatigue. This is unusual for me, as usually it is my heart/lungs that hold me back. I guess my pace was slow enough and my legs weak enough that they were the first to give in.
By the 11th km, everything hurt - except my knee! I was happy that my knee didn't hurt. But my legs were all but shaking from effort. It is so sad how much fitness I've lost in my...well, my ~6 months of being either slack training or in off-season. Sad, but perhaps not too surprising.
Only 12 weeks to go until the very special Gold Coast Half Marathon!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
"I could be talked into it"
Six innoculous words that often mean the start of an adventure. Today was no different! But to get to that, I need to backtrack a little.
I need to backtrack to Thursday's hill session, where I wrote of having a little niggle in my knee towards the end of the session.
That little niggle returned on Friday's session of hills/stairs (and running in between) and returned with a vengeance. So Friday night I wound up debating the merits of doing Saturday's long slow run of 12k with friends. It boiled down to this:
Reasons to go - I'm in the final 12weeks of training before the Gold Coast, and have a very poor fitness base. Every run counts from here on out.
Reasons to not go - that little niggle could easily turn into something much worse, and then I'd miss many sessions as I'd be injured and unable to run.
One of my friends suggested that I run on Sunday instead. A great idea, but I am no longer that person who can self-motivate to run long distances on my own, and the only people I know who could run 12k with me are in my running group and would be running on Saturday instead. Hmmm. I jokingly told my friends, "I'd go Sunday if you would ride beside me". To my surprise, one answered, "I could be talked into it."
And so the idea was born! We planned a route that would not coincidentally map out my route to my new place of work, as I am hoping to start riding to work this week. And as an added bonus, they would take pictures of me training along the way. Let the adventures begin!
...to be continued...
I need to backtrack to Thursday's hill session, where I wrote of having a little niggle in my knee towards the end of the session.
That little niggle returned on Friday's session of hills/stairs (and running in between) and returned with a vengeance. So Friday night I wound up debating the merits of doing Saturday's long slow run of 12k with friends. It boiled down to this:
Reasons to go - I'm in the final 12weeks of training before the Gold Coast, and have a very poor fitness base. Every run counts from here on out.
Reasons to not go - that little niggle could easily turn into something much worse, and then I'd miss many sessions as I'd be injured and unable to run.
One of my friends suggested that I run on Sunday instead. A great idea, but I am no longer that person who can self-motivate to run long distances on my own, and the only people I know who could run 12k with me are in my running group and would be running on Saturday instead. Hmmm. I jokingly told my friends, "I'd go Sunday if you would ride beside me". To my surprise, one answered, "I could be talked into it."
And so the idea was born! We planned a route that would not coincidentally map out my route to my new place of work, as I am hoping to start riding to work this week. And as an added bonus, they would take pictures of me training along the way. Let the adventures begin!
...to be continued...
Sunday, January 29, 2012
There Will Be Rain
I woke up, laced up my running shoes, grabbed my keys and...it started pouring. Ugh! I stopped at the front door, staring in misery at the wet. I had planned to do a 12k today. I was supposed to do it yesterday (keeping in line with the Saturday = 'long run', Sunday = rest) schedule. But on Friday my gluteus was maximus sore. I think it was more about my hamstrings than my glutes, but regardless, Friday was an unfortunate day. I climb on average 12 flights of stairs at work, and I could feel each and every one on Friday. So I took Saturday as my rest day - no sense pushing, right?
But then came Sunday.
Then came the rain.
There were two and only two thoughts that pushed me out the door into the rain.
1. At some point in my life, luck will run out. I will get up on race day to find - not clear skies - but a torrential downpour. At that point I will have to make a decision: get up and race in the rain or cut my losses and go back to bed? To increase the likeliness of the former decision being made, I will need to practise training in the rain.
2. Two weeks until training camp. I only have two more opportunities to get a "long" run in.
So out I stepped into the storm.
There are some people who like running in the rain. I know because they've told me. I say, if I wanted to be wet I would partake in triathlons. I can't say I enjoy the feeling of being damp all over. The chances of chaffing and blisters sky rocket, and I have enough tweaks and pains from running that I don't desire to worry over any more. Pure luck had my shoes staying relatively dry until the last 20min, when it poured. And then it felt as if I were running through a swamp. If this had happened at the beginning of the 12k, I can't say I would have finished it easily...or at all.
Sadly, my watch isn't working at the moment. Happily, it means I don't have to admit to my pace! I can't say that today was the best of days for my running either in terms of weather or me. I was one big ache all yesterday and last night and running with good posture was surprisingly difficult this morning. So let's just say:
1. I managed to reach my goal of 12k (~12.2km)
2. I ran almost the entire distance with 4 exceptions: (a. climbing stairs onto a bridge, b. stupid loose dog I had to walk by, c. traffic light, and d. a really steep hill right at the end where I had nothing left to give)
3. I kept the pace nice and easy. ;)
But then came Sunday.
Then came the rain.
There were two and only two thoughts that pushed me out the door into the rain.
1. At some point in my life, luck will run out. I will get up on race day to find - not clear skies - but a torrential downpour. At that point I will have to make a decision: get up and race in the rain or cut my losses and go back to bed? To increase the likeliness of the former decision being made, I will need to practise training in the rain.
2. Two weeks until training camp. I only have two more opportunities to get a "long" run in.
So out I stepped into the storm.
There are some people who like running in the rain. I know because they've told me. I say, if I wanted to be wet I would partake in triathlons. I can't say I enjoy the feeling of being damp all over. The chances of chaffing and blisters sky rocket, and I have enough tweaks and pains from running that I don't desire to worry over any more. Pure luck had my shoes staying relatively dry until the last 20min, when it poured. And then it felt as if I were running through a swamp. If this had happened at the beginning of the 12k, I can't say I would have finished it easily...or at all.
Sadly, my watch isn't working at the moment. Happily, it means I don't have to admit to my pace! I can't say that today was the best of days for my running either in terms of weather or me. I was one big ache all yesterday and last night and running with good posture was surprisingly difficult this morning. So let's just say:
1. I managed to reach my goal of 12k (~12.2km)
2. I ran almost the entire distance with 4 exceptions: (a. climbing stairs onto a bridge, b. stupid loose dog I had to walk by, c. traffic light, and d. a really steep hill right at the end where I had nothing left to give)
3. I kept the pace nice and easy. ;)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Back with the pack
This weekend I returned to Brisbane. What a fantastic, fantastic trip! I was home for three days and ran every single day with all my favourite people. How much I’ve missed everyone!
Friday: women’s run with my running group.
Chris (the coach) kindly picked me up as I was car-less. Ahh, how I have missed the Friday morning fun! Because we had new people, Chris decided to forego the loop in favour of uphill sprints and stairs. Not steep hills…but lots of stairs. And weird things on stairs that I had to do slowly due to my lack of coordination. But despite this, the laughter and joking never stopped.
Saturday: long slow run with my running group
The group was full of new faces and people I hadn’t seen for weeks, so there was a lot of catching up to do. A fellow runner kindly baked me a belated birthday cake – yum! To quote Chris, I was in the group that was “just doing 12k”. (The fast group was doing 20k). Ah, bliss! How I’ve missed the 12k runs. They are so short and easy. You’re out and back before you know it. No mental psyching up required, no physical exhaustion or stiff muscles following the run, and no time commitment! We split from the fast group who did a completely different route, which was a nice change. While I love starting together, the trouble is that we end up pushing too hard. Chris ran with the back posse group this week and we wound our way through the hills at a slow, easy pace of 6.10. It seemed every hill and corner I was beside someone different. The run was over far too quickly – 12ks are like that, but most of us went up for breakfast and hung around for the next couple of hours catching up.
Total time: 1.13.18
Sunday: social run!
Sunday I did a social run with my two most loyal & favourite social run friends (you know who you are!). How fantastic is it to be able to catch up while going for a walk/run? We did a loop around the uni, cutting it short as my friends had a time limit due to other engagements. We alternated between an easy jog and a walk. As one of them pointed out, it’s nice to have friends I can catch up with on a run. It gets me out the door and aside from sleep, not many activities are planned at 7am. And who would want to sleep at 7am when you could be out running with friends? Pace – who cares? That’s what’s great about social runs! J
All that fantastic running over the weekend made me realize that maybe I haven’t just been lazy with my “semi-off-season” running these past few weeks. Maybe I’ve simply lacked the motivation to go out when I haven’t encountered anyone as fantastic to run with as my Brisbane group (I’m counting both the running group and my social running friends in this!). Running with others is not for everyone – some people are better at being a lone wolf. Me, I’ve discovered the joy of running in a pack.
Friday: women’s run with my running group.
Chris (the coach) kindly picked me up as I was car-less. Ahh, how I have missed the Friday morning fun! Because we had new people, Chris decided to forego the loop in favour of uphill sprints and stairs. Not steep hills…but lots of stairs. And weird things on stairs that I had to do slowly due to my lack of coordination. But despite this, the laughter and joking never stopped.
Saturday: long slow run with my running group
The group was full of new faces and people I hadn’t seen for weeks, so there was a lot of catching up to do. A fellow runner kindly baked me a belated birthday cake – yum! To quote Chris, I was in the group that was “just doing 12k”. (The fast group was doing 20k). Ah, bliss! How I’ve missed the 12k runs. They are so short and easy. You’re out and back before you know it. No mental psyching up required, no physical exhaustion or stiff muscles following the run, and no time commitment! We split from the fast group who did a completely different route, which was a nice change. While I love starting together, the trouble is that we end up pushing too hard. Chris ran with the back posse group this week and we wound our way through the hills at a slow, easy pace of 6.10. It seemed every hill and corner I was beside someone different. The run was over far too quickly – 12ks are like that, but most of us went up for breakfast and hung around for the next couple of hours catching up.
Total time: 1.13.18
Sunday: social run!
Sunday I did a social run with my two most loyal & favourite social run friends (you know who you are!). How fantastic is it to be able to catch up while going for a walk/run? We did a loop around the uni, cutting it short as my friends had a time limit due to other engagements. We alternated between an easy jog and a walk. As one of them pointed out, it’s nice to have friends I can catch up with on a run. It gets me out the door and aside from sleep, not many activities are planned at 7am. And who would want to sleep at 7am when you could be out running with friends? Pace – who cares? That’s what’s great about social runs! J
All that fantastic running over the weekend made me realize that maybe I haven’t just been lazy with my “semi-off-season” running these past few weeks. Maybe I’ve simply lacked the motivation to go out when I haven’t encountered anyone as fantastic to run with as my Brisbane group (I’m counting both the running group and my social running friends in this!). Running with others is not for everyone – some people are better at being a lone wolf. Me, I’ve discovered the joy of running in a pack.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)