Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Hard data.

Well, the first 5k I have run in nearly two years has happened. the last time I laced um up I ran a 17:05 at the 2006 turkey trot, the race before that was a 16:16 out in Bryson city on the fourth of July that year. For somebody who professes to be good at 5K I sure as hell do waste a lot of time training for longer races... (I do love my shut in and running relays though....) Anyway, I need to get from 6:15 per mile to 5:15 per mile and then start true speed work. On paper, it seems SOOOOO easy, just change that 6 to a 5... done. I know better, there are miles of trials and trials of miles aplenty between here and there. Amongst my relay running brethren... um and sistren when you add Amber Moran who just raced 10 miles at 6 minute per mile pace... the difference between 6:15 and 5:15 pace on a 5K goes from, "aw how cute", to,"respect".

But I must say, for a starting point, I am perfectly happy with a 19:19 on a 5k. Especially one I gave no special training consideration to in terms of resting my body or anything like that. Honestly, I will continue on like that until I feel like I have a shot at breaking 16 minutes. Just find a race and go run the damn thing. I will say that after a 5k on Friday, and a full 90 minutes on the pitch Sunday, I know better than to waste time at the hill repeats tonight. Instead, I will lazily ride my bike up to craggy and take pictures of leaves and other pretty shiite. I will let the blood flow gently through my legs and cleanse all the built up crud from the weekends efforts while I burn a few calories in the quest to be rid of every single ounce of me that I don't need when it comes to showing most of the world a clean pair of heels.
To that end... I close this post. Perhaps I'll add a pic from the day. tonight when I get home.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

It's doable...

After running a Blue ridge relay where I put forth as much effort as I could given my limited fitness I have begun to actually start down the road to get some (fitness) Drinking less. Staying out too late less. Running an average of once a day or better. All the little things that require nothing more than the will to do them (or not do them as it were). The cold front that blew in makes running fast much more feasible. My ab muscles still hurt most of the time and that is bothersome, But apart from simple discomfort It is not stopping me from running. I'll just tough it out and see what happens. I think I have a focus race coming up. I'd like very much to go to Uhwarrie and run the 8 miler to see where I am fitness wise. It is in February and that will give me time to train properly. It blows my mind how I let myself get out of shape. I love the feeling, why would I not stay there? I averaged an abysmal 7:35 per mile for the blue ridge relay. In 2006 I could have taken those same legs (hills and all) and run 6:00 per mile or just under it. Just a month later I am ready to run those same legs in 7:00 pace. That's nice but I want the whole thing back asap. Weight loss is not happening quite as fast as I'd like. Turns out I have LOTS of fat hiding on me and I needed to build up more running muscle. It won't be as simple as, drop weight and then you are ready to run. It's more like, whip the mule and have it push away from the feeding trough as well. I don't care if I look gaunt when it's all done, I'll work on adding muscle after I get down to race weight.
One other thing that I am going to have to do is break out the spread sheet o' pain. Basically I will lay out a weekly time target for running. It must be hit properly. If I miss a run then other runs get longer and weekly running distances and times are achieved.
I have been talking about this crap for months and done precious little about it. Time to go!