Wednesday, June 3, 2009

What I did on National Running Day

Today I went back to work after several days off. That meant back to the early morning running... early being 6:45 this morning. Should have been 6:30, which meant I had a little bit of a time crunch on my hands. No time to add extra miles, I would have to be happy with an ordinary six, and if I could get it done quickly, all the better.

I have been toying with signing up for the Anacortes Half Marathon in August. It will be my first half since Bath, and if I started training for it on June 1, I would have two full months to prepare, which should be plenty, considering the running I've been doing all along. And I wouldn't even have to worry about increasing my mileage for a couple weeks or so. So I started my "training program" on Monday without doing anything special.

But I am aware that one thing I should not dilly dally about is doing some structured speed work. I may be able to try some track workouts later in the summer, like other bloggers I know, but there was no reason not to work some speed runs into my regular schedule right away. Since today is National Running Day, this seemed like a good morning to start!

So I just did one of my own simplest speed work runs, which is alternating easy miles with sorta fast miles. I started with a mile and a half to warm up, then a mile at a faster pace (about 8:45), a mile slower (about 9:30), two miles faster (each about 8:35), then the remaining distance home, about three quarters of a mile, at around 9:45. I can't remember the pace of that one off the top of my head, but I know it was pretty moderate. When my watch clicked to 6.25 miles (57:33), I stopped it and walked the remaining half block home. My average pace for the whole run was 9:12, which I am quite happy with, though it's definitely an average between the faster and slower laps.

So that is what I did for National Running Day. Now I'm heading out to meet Rod to go to his folks' house for his birthday. There may be some kayaking involved as well.

Happy Running Day!

1 comment:

Middle-of-the-Pack Girl said...

You did more than me - I didn't get to run at all. But I'll be out there in the a.m. like you tomorrow. I like your idea of speedwork, that definitely varies up the routine.

Tomorrow I may end up doing that without trying, as I may be adding more hillwork to my 5 mile loop!