Happy 2016!
It’s been fun to look back on 2015 and see the progress of my return to running after having baby #2. Signing up for a marathon was just the motivation I desperately needed to get back to running consistently again. So here it is, my 2015 running in review by the numbers:
Total Miles Run: 751.35
Time Spent Running: 119 hours, 18 minutes
Most Mileage in a Month: 133 miles
Races Run: 3
% of Miles Run in First 6 Months vs. Last 6 Months: 22% vs. 78%
Looking back at the numbers leads to me to looking ahead to 2016. I didn’t hit any PRs in 2015, so I’m hoping to make some PRs in 2016. I really, really would like to beat my 1:50:00: half-marathon PR since it has always bugged me that if I had run 1 second faster I could have had a 1:49:59 PR which seems so much faster 🙂 I’d also love to PR in the marathon, but I don’t know if it’s realistic. We’ll see. My other goal for 2016 is to hit 1,000 miles for the year.
So what am I doing to meet these goals for 2016? My focus has been increasing my speed and keeping my milage up to half-marathon shape. I’ve been using Run Less, Run Faster (RLRF)workouts and prescribed paces based off my recent Turkey Trot 5k. I’m not following the plan exactly (which calls for 3 quality runs (track work, tempo run, and a long run) + 2 days of cross-training), but am using their quality run workouts/paces for guidance.
After 2 weeks of little to no running it was time for me to get back on track this past week.
Weekly Training: December 28 – January 2
Monday: 5 miles @8:59. I don’t remember this run, but I know it was on the treadmill and I think it was a steady state run.
Tuesday: 10 min warm up, 3×1600 @7:47 with 90 second Rest Intervals, .5M cool down – After my workout I realized the rest interval was supposed to be 60 seconds, but am glad that I didn’t remember that while running. 60 seconds would have been too short for me, but the 90 seconds helped me be able to hold 7:47 pace for the last repeat.
Wednesday: 6M @9:19 – The unthinkable is happening. I am starting to run out of new Scandal episodes to watch during my treadmill runs! I’m desperately trying to find another show so that I have options, but haven’t had much luck. I watched Netflix’s Making of a Murderer episode 1 during this run. It is a gripping story, but think it would be better to watch on the couch with my husband than on the treadmill.
Thursday: 10 min warm up, 3M @ Short Tempo pace (8:20), .9M c/d – After running only twice last week and not at all the week before, I knew I didn’t want to tackle an 8M run with 6M at tempo, so I opted for last weeks workout of 3M at Short Tempo pace. Mentally this was a hard run for me and I was really looking forward to not running at all the next day.
Friday: off
Saturday: 10 miles – My husband always teases me about how I spend just as much time analyzing my long runs beforehand as I do actually running them. This week my dilemma was whether I was going to meet up with some other local runners for a 6am run at 8:45 pace. I’d have to wake up at 5 to do so which is the middle of the night to me, and was worried about holding 8:45 pace for 8 miles. Especially since it usually takes me a mile to warm up. After hemming and hawing all Friday night I ended up opting to sleep a little later and head out on my own. It was about 25 degrees when I started and couldn’t decide what to wear so I spent a good amount of time debating between tights vs. crops, base layer under my long sleeve vs. just a long sleeve vs. long sleeve + jacket. By the time I finally headed out (in crops + just a long sleeve + gloves + ear warmer which ended up the perfect combination for me) I really had spent nearly the same amount of time thinking and talking about it as it took to complete it!
About half of my miles last year were run on the treadmill at 0-1% incline and I could feel the difference of running on roads with ups and downs today. My route was pretty flat except for one big hill at mile 6. I felt like I was barely moving up it today and my legs felt dead running up it. Around mile 8 I started to feel tired again and at mile 9 I stopped to set up my camera to take an in-action shot which I admit to feeling really embarrassed about 🙂 Splits: (1) 9:23 (2) 8:53 (3) 8:54 (4) 8:50 (5) 8:44 (6) 9:30 (7) 8:56 (8) 9:05 (9) 9:21 (10) 8:29
Sunday: off
Weekly Total: 31 miles
running (Bos)s 