Showing posts with label 3 miles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3 miles. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2011

Pushing Myself

Distance: 3.5 miles
Duration: 33:50
Avg Pace: 9:40 min/mile!!!!!
Route: MapMyRun

Usually when I run, I aim to do a little better than the last run. Defining "a little better" then depends on what my next race is. In the past few months, I've been training to run a 12K (Bay2Breakers), so each run has been about an 11 minute/mile pace but I tried increasing the distances a little more and a little more.

Since B2B has gone and passed, I didn't have much of an aim or goal -- my next race was the next weekend and was the Warrior Dash, which was an obstacle course more than a run... and the next race after that was the 5K in October for the AIDS Walk (have you donated yet? seriously? Send $5 to my page and feel $100 better about yourself! Click here!)

So the past two runs, I decided to push myself a little. I had been running for a while now, content at my heart rate and pace. When I decided to push myself a little, I found a huge improvement. I've always said that one of my goals is to run a 5K in under 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure I can do that now.

And so that I won't get "bored" or just be content with my current norm of running about 3.5 miles, I signed up for an 8K on July 2. (For those that are K-challenged, that's 4.9 miles. Essentially, it's a 5 mile race). So I'll be going back to building up some more miles in the next few weeks.

For now, I'm declaring myself a Ten-Minute-Mile-Runner (no longer an Eleven-Minute-Mile-Runner)!

So behind in updates!

I am so behind in updating! I'll update my log of runs first, then I'll go back later and talk about each run (that I feel like talking about!) -- some I have pictures from!

May 13, 2011
about 3.6 miles
No idea how long it took us, nor what our pace was!!
Map
Beautiful run at "Land's End" in San Francisco with my pal, Joey. MORE to come about this run! I have pictures! I will update a new post about this run, along with the pictures!

May 15, 2011
BAY TO BREAKERS!!!!!
7.43 Miles
1:26:43
11:38 min/mile pace
Map on MapMyRun
Official Map
I will definitely be writing more about this one, too. An amazing race filled with flying tortillas, NAKED PEOPLE, salmon swimming upstream and all sorts of chaos and insanity.

May 19, 2011
2.63 miles
26:41
10:09 min/mile pace
Map
Meh, it was a run. Obviously wasn't that into it... only could go a few miles...

May 28, 2011
3.0 miles
32:38
10:51 min/mile
Map
Not bad - pace was improving, but if I'm going to hit a goal of a 5K in under 30 minutes, I need to step it up a little.

June 2, 2011
3.5 miles
34:09
9.46 minute per mile!!!
Map
Amazing what happens when you push yourself just a little. My heart rate was a little out of control on this run, but I was super happy with the pace. I had told myself that I was going to have to start pushing myself a little

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wednesday's Easy Run...

Distance: 3.88 miles
Duration: 43:03
Avg Pace: 11:06 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

The plan is to run while on vacation with some friends. So today's run had to be short. I said to myself "at least 30 minutes." Then, of course, I ran really far away and had to run home.

It was an alright run. Again, very muggy. Good thing, though, because where I'm going on vacation is going to be muggy. Very muggy.

Not much to say about the run - a decent pace, but I have to start pushing myself a little more. I thought a lot about the friends I'm going to be seeing during my vacation and that made me smile a lot. It's going to be a really great weekend.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Foul mood is foul today.

Distance: 3.23 miles
Duration: 35:07
Avg Pace: 10:57 min/mile (wow, under 11 min/mile!)
Route: MapMyRun

A short run. I really struggled with this one. I didn't feel great when I woke up this morning. I still don't feel great.

Have I mentioned before that I have a 10 month old baby? She sleeps great most of the time, but the past couple of nights, she's woken up 3:30, 4, 4:30 am and been just ready to play. I am a pretty evil subhuman version of myself at those hours. I'm fortunate enough that my husband is around to help out and go sit with her some of the bad mornings, but I still wake up when she cries. I don't function well with super broken up sleep. Momma needs her beauty sleep!

So I didn't get great sleep last night. I woke up in a foul mood. There's a lot of other personal stuff going on with my siblings, which I won't get into, but needless to say, there's a LOT on my mind.

So usually I run to clear my mind. To de-stress. To calm my nerves and relax.

All I could think about during today's run was how quickly I could get home. And how my pants fit funny and my belly was squishy. and how much stuff I need to do before I go on vacation. And all the sibling stuff. and and and...

There's so much going on -- even a run in gorgeous sunny weather couldn't clear my head today.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Today's Run - I'm grinning like a fool.

Distance: 3.12 miles
Duration: 35:16
Avg Pace: 11:18 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

I am on such a high from today's run, I don't even know what to write about. The weather. Oh the weather! It is sunny, mid 70's, slight warm breeze. It's days like this where I wish I could take more than an hour for lunch break and run forever.

I had planned to take the same route as I did last week, but about 2 minutes in, I made a break for the woods. See, there's these great trails that go between my neighborhood and a few others around here. In the woods, by a creek, up a hill... it's pretty, it's quiet and I love to run it. They are doing some construction back there, so the normal way I go isn't available. So I took a new route and I'm really pleased I did. Made today's 3 miles way more interesting.

My pace was better, my mind was clearer, my route more interesting, and my heart rate stayed in check except for the last 2 minutes (it always goes up a little in the same physical location, no matter what I do - I guess there's a small climb there?). I don't know what else to say about today's run -- I'm grinning ear to ear.

I can say, I have no idea what I even thought about during today's run. That's how calming it was for me.

I wish spring was here to stay.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My Run on 3/28/2011

Yesterday's run was 3.38 miles. It lasted 37:05 minutes. The pace was 10:57 min/mile.
MapMyRun

It felt good. The first half mile ALWAYS sucks. I usually think I'm just going to turn the corner and head home. But I normally just turn and run farther away from home and tell myself "just a few more minutes, it's not so bad." It was cold yesterday. The wind was biting.

During the run, I thought I was going faster than the past few runs, but still kept my heart rate in my "zone." I use a polar heart rate monitor (in pink! of course!) and it's really helped me train. Instead of running until I can't run anymore, then walking, I've been running, then when my heart rate gets too high, the monitor beeps non stop at me until I slow my heart rate down. I slow it down by slowing down my pace and concentrating on my breathing. Since I started training this way, the first day was the only day I had to start walking to slow my heart rate all the way down. I've learned to pace myself and when I am trying to go too hard or fast, I have really learned how to slow down and get myself in check. Consequently, I'm running slightly faster and slightly further with each run.

Funny to think that just a few weeks ago, the thought of running 3 miles in a row seemed impossible. Yesterday was my "easy run" and it was 3.38 miles, which didn't seem bad at all. I was trying to make the run similar to my run from last Thursday, only faster (See here) but when I got to a certain point, I suddenly decided to try a new path. Only this path was about to go through the woods and I saw that it was swampy. So I said "No thanks" and had to back track a little. That's where I got the extra .7 miles in, by mistake.

So at the end of the run, if I didn't have time constraints (during the week I run during my lunch break, which means I have an hour to get ready, then run, then stretch out after. Forget the shower - I have to sit in my sweat the rest of my work day. ew), so if i didn't have time constraints, I probably was good for at least another half mile or more!

Let's see what Wednesday brings us! I'm hoping that it's less swampy where I want to run (but doubt it) because that's the end of my run and the last mile has now become incredibly boring to me.