May Recap

Y’all. Is it really JUNE?

Month Recap: May 2018

The Running

I started working with a new coach towards the end of April. You can read about that and more here! May brought some challenging workouts as I settled into a groove of working with Sarah. I struggled with the longer workouts that were prescribed. One was a two mile warm up followed by four miles at 6:45, three miles at 6:35, two miles at 6:25 and one mile at 6:15 with a three mile cool down (with a half mile recovery in between each of the sets). I didn’t quite make it all the way through this workout, but I at least came close.

Another one was a three mile warm up followed by three miles at 6:50, three by one mile at 6:26 (with a half mile recovery in between), three miles at 6:50 and a three mile cool down. This workout was scheduled for a Saturday morning, but I procrastinated it until Sunday (in the name of giving myself an extra day to prepare). I was struggling to run during the warm up miles and made the executive decision to just bag the workout all together. I had run a 5K the weekend before and done a really hard 15 X 90 second interval workout the week of this workout, so I think my legs just weren’t recovered enough.

With the idea of a late fall marathon in mind, my workouts this summer will be focused on building both speed and strength. I am in better shape speed wise than strength wise currently (in Sarah’s opinion at least (I don’t know how good my speed really is)). Those longer runs are definitely challenging, but I know that I need to do some work on that front in order to build the strength that I need for a good marathon.

Workouts: I got in six pretty solid workouts this month. I think the goal is basically two quality sessions per week, but I did two races as well, so that pretty much gets me to an average of two quality runs per week.

2 mi. WU, 15 X 2:00 hard (6:11 avg.) w/ 1:00 easy jogging recovery, 2 mi. CD

2 mi. WU, 4 mi. (6:54 avg.), 3 mi. (6:41 avg.), 2 mi. (6:59 avg.), 2 mi. CD 

2 mi. WU, 3 X 800 (2:57 avg.), 6 X 400 (1:24 avg.), 3 X 800 (3:02 avg.), 2 mi. CD

2 mi. WU, 15 X 1:30 hard (5:56 pace) w/ 1:00 easy jogging recovery, 2 mi. CD

3 mi. WU, 3 X 800 (3:00 avg.), 3 X 600 (2:15 avg.), 3 X 400 (1:24 avg.), 2 mi. CD 

2 mi. WU, 15 X 1:00 hard (5:41 avg.) w/ 1:00 easy jogging recovery, 2 mi. CD

Favorite workout: My favorite workout was the 3 X 800, 3 X 600, 3 X 400 ladder workout. The workout was easy to manage mentally. I told myself just to get through the 3 X 800 and I’d be almost done. While that wasn’t really the case, by the time I got through the 3 X 600 portion, I was definitely almost done. I felt really strong on the 3 X 400 portion and it’s always great to finish up a workout feeling strong!

Races: I ran the Do it in the Bush 5K on May 12 and the Paradise Island 5K on May 27. DIITB was a trail run and Paradise Island was on the paved trails at the Gulf State Park.

Favorite race: While I really enjoyed running through the woods at DIITB, Paradise Island was my favorite race. DIITB is a no frills race (I do enjoy that from time to time), but Paradise Island definitely took the cake this month. I loved the medals and the awards, which influenced my opinion for sure.

Paces: My paces ranged from 6:05 (first mile of Paradise Island) to 10:55 (on the trails at Chewacla in Auburn). I felt like I was flying on the trails at Chewacla, but my average pace for a seven mile run was 10:28. I was taking smaller, quicker strides than normal, trying [unsuccessfully I might add] not to bust my butt on the trails. Taking more steps than usual gave me a false feeling of running faster. I’m sure that there is a technique to trail running that I don’t have mastered. If I pursue trailing running, I’ll have to look into that some more.

Miles: 287!

Longest run: 15.4 miles.

Shortest run: 5 miles.

Rest days: I took two days off completely.

Strength training: Lots of planking and one Jasyoga video (facepalm). What would be a good goal? One Jasyoga video per week? Surely I can make that happen.