Friday ladies run

My last Friday morning session for a potentially long time! The group was small today - just 7 of us ladies...and Chris. Some new faces as well, which was nice. We started off with sprints along Kangaroo Point. We did a 1:1 ratio of sprint/recover. There were a lot! The total distance probably equated to about 1.2km. We arrived at a park and then proceeded to do 5 intervals of 600m+. If you have never done sprints followed by intervals, you may not appreciate how it kills the legs! I can't explain why, but trust me that it is exhausting. The hilly cool-down jog back was more than enough for my legs at the end.

Social run and such

Sunday I went for a social run with two fantastic friends, and they brought along a 3rd person to make a quad group. I don't do enough social runs! They are super fun and easy going. For this run we went on a lovely 7.5k loop around the river, which is my favourite route.

Today I made the mistake of getting up almost an hour earlier than I needed to (I'm so used to getting up at group training times!). It was a beautiful morning albeit a bit cold. I ran 3x 10min intervals. I'm not sure how far I went but am happy to say I went farther each time. I've come to realize that I'm not so much improving with my solo training as "maintaining". Sort of. 5 weeks to go until Melbourne Half Marathon! I can't believe this will be my third half marathon of the year.

...And I've decided to do one final race of the season. A 500k team relay in November. I know I said Melbourne was it...but 500k team relay! How could I resist?

Monday Heat

I joined a women's beginner group run this morning with the squad. It will be my first and last run with the group...not because it was terrible, but because I start full-time work next week (siiigh) and my fantastic Mondays off will soon be a distant memory.
It started at 9am, which was weird to sleep in. And it was HOT today! Oof, was it hot! After months of running in bitter cold, today was a shock to the system.
We ran a 7.5k loop with intervals of about 1km. After a weekend of eating yummy cookies, I wasn't at my fastest or my best. But I had the bizarre sensation of being the fastest in the group. I've been one of the faster ones before (on the rare occasion) but never the fastest. I'm not really sure I like it. I'm always more motivated when I'm trying to catch up with that person who's just a little bit faster than me.

Six Street Lights

I sadly forgot my music again, but running in a new area piqued my interest enough to let it go. Intervals today. I picked a street near the residence I’m staying and ran down equivalent to 6 street lights and back. ‘Wow’, you’re thinking. ‘Six street lights! Don’t go overdoing it!’ But here the street lights are few and far between.
Round 1: I had a stopwatch hiccup and didn’t measure this one.
Round 2: 6.58min
Round 3: 6.56min
Round 4: 7.00min
Round 5: 6.55min
I was pretty proud of those times. I was sure I had done fantastically! And then I measured the distance. A little over 1200m. That’s a pace of 5.50min/km (I think. Always double check the math against me!). I mean, it’s not bad but it’s not great, you know? If my goal for a half marathon is a 5.41min/km pace I would ideally like to be going faster than that for a short little 1km interval! I guess it’s just tougher when I don’t have others with me spurring me on.
On the bright side, my knee had only mild aches at the last few hundred metres of my final rep. It’s almost all better now. Silly ITB band. I’ve been giving it lots of love.

Unmotivated

I did NOT want to go out running today. So I decided to go for a walk instead. But I put on my running clothes...just in case. Walked outside and it was numbingly cold! Turned on my ipod and the batteries were dead. Not a good start to the day. But I RAN. I did 4x 1km intervals with a 200m walking break in between. It may not seem like much, but it was better than the nothing I wanted to do initially.
1st km: 5.27min
2nd km: 5.21min
3rd km: 5.24min
4th km: 5.29min

I know I should have done a fifth one but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Still, I was thisclose to not going out at all, so yay for me!