Friday Fitness Goals Recap: Getting Serious About Running

This has been a pretty awesome running week! Although I haven’t gone as often as I’d like and didn’t have make time to cross-train, they were mostly quality runs and I’m feeling pretty inspired after running my first 10k (read my race recap).

Saturday – ran the St. Patrick’s Day 10k in 1:11. Got my first race medal!
Sunday – walked 13 flights of stairs on break at work
Monday – ran 3 miles after work
Tuesday – walked 13 flights of stairs on break at work
Thursday – ran about 2 miles in the neighborhood, doing fartlek intervals. Ok, if that word just made you giggle a lit bit then we have the same immature sense of humor. It’s a Swedish word and basically you alternate sprints with slow running. It was really hot out so it wasn’t the best timing, but I’m glad I forced myself to do something.
today – ran 6.5-ish miles (maybe 7?). I was so giddy to do my long run, I was actually thinking about it last night and popped right out of bed this morning to get it done early while it was still cool. In case you think I’m some weird crazy person for this, I too used to hate running. Mainly because I wasn’t very good at it, but all that can change with enough practice

To increase my distance and stave off boredom, I created a new 4-ish mile loop, then back-tracked a bit and did my usual 3 mile downtown route. Even though it was early, I was still dripping with sweat after running for about 1:15. Although post-run pics are never flattering, I snapped one and will share anyway because it’s the closest I can come to describing that post-run glow. I felt like I could take on the world after that, and it’s a great feeling knowing that I ran more in one morning than many people do all week, before most people in the neighborhood had even gotten up.

My next race is the LGAA 5k, a nice chip-timed evening run on a golf course. I did this one last year when it was my second 5k ever. I struggled with running the whole way and had to walk portions of it to catch my breath, and I think my time was around 37 minutes. I would LOVE to get my time down to 30 minutes or less this time around, but I’m not sure if 2 weeks is enough time to increase my pace that much (last 5k was at almost 33 minutes).

How are my fellow running divas doing (or walking/swimming/biking etc)? Would love to hear about your health and fitness triumphs and struggles too!

Tagged as: running