Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Seeing Progress

I may be limping around with a compression sleeve on my knee, but I feel amazing. I ran 11.33 miles on Sunday with 1,150 feet of climbing at 9:49 pace. I felt it in my knee somewhere around mile 8 or 9 in the middle of the endless hill, but I pushed on and didn't walk and got it done. Less than half a year ago I was stopping to walk on a hill in the middle of a 4 or 5 mile run. I feel so confident in myself now. And thankfully, I don't think that the knee pain will be lasting. It's already much better than it had been. A couple more days of rest should have me ready to run again. I am very excited about trying some flat fast runs now to see how I can do at keeping a sustained speed. The half marathon I'm training for is very flat, so I'd like to replicate that for some runs. I can't wait to get back out on the road and trail!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Base

Two years ago I made a discovery: total body circuit workouts did more for my running than running did. I ran a 5k PR without training or really preparing for the race in any way except for having done circuit workouts for a couple of months beforehand. I am now finally getting to put that knowledge to use as part of training for a half marathon this spring.

In the past, when I tried to build a base for long distances, all I focused on was increasing mileage. I wasn't strong enough for the longer miles, though, and I got injured. But now, I finally have a base. I started building it as I trained for the Ride to Read cycling fundraiser last summer. I trained for a fall 10k and was prepared for that distance before bringing on longer distances and more circuit workouts. I did a month of Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 workouts this winter and incorporate yoga into my weekly training. I feel stronger and more flexible than ever. I ran a 10-miler this morning at a faster pace than I ever had before even though it had hundreds of feet more elevation than any 10-miler I've run. I still have a long way to go before I'll be really ready to run the half at my goal pace, but I have the preparation behind me that is needed to get there, and I'm really excited about that.