Yesterday's exercise plans got shot out of the water with the snow. I didn't make it out for my morning run and I didn't make my evening trip to the gym that I had planned. GRRR I spent about 30 minutes outside in the morning shoveling and walking. I then followed up in the evening with a 30 minute step aerobic dvd. (which kicked my butt!). SO I still maintained a somewhat active day. VICTORY! (however I caved and had a diet soda after my step aerobic workout....oh well, my water consumption was in, so it's not a bad splurge!)
This morning I was up and out the door shortly after 7AM. Why so early? I had a make up run to do! (remember, yesterday's run was canceled due to snow) I was nervous at first. MY car was covered in a layer of ice and our deck was one slippery mess. However, the roads were fine.
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| Snow covered fields at sunrise |
I have decided what I'm going to do to increase my speed while I run. I have decided to run intervals. I've read different views on increasing speed. Some say intervals, some say run up a steep grade hill and jog back down and repeat at least 10 times (which sounds like an incredibly intense workout...I will probably torture myself with that sooner or later). Some people just say run and force yourself to better your time each and every day. I'm going to simply run intervals. I am going to try to pushy myself harder during my intervals, since I know that I will have a period of rest after the run. My plan? I still plan on running three times a week. Two runs will be interval runs and the third run will be a straight up jog/run. My third straight up (no interval) run will be timed and recorded so that I can hopefully see my progress. I had actually found a great (free) app for my phone a while back, and never used it as I swung through the C25K program. It's called RunNow. You can set the length of your run intervals and walk/jog intervals. You can change how it notifies you when it's time to run/walk and it notifies you when you are at the halfway mark (in case you are running an out and back). I used it today. My play list played just fine with this program also running....and the voice did a nice job of notifying me when I needed to change up my pace. It doesn't have a GPS program built into that app (maybe that's because I have the free option! LOL) but I just turned on one of the apps that I have on my phone (mapmyride is a free one). Maybe someday soon I can afford a heart rate monitor that has that built in so I don't have to zap the power on my phone when I'm running! But for now everything running on my phone works just fine. I can't wait to see how I progress. I would LOVE to be under 40 minutes for my next 5k (May 18th) but I will be happy with ANY improvement! I will conquer this running thing ....in a few months you can just call me "speed demon!"
You are braver than I am with the weather. This is the first year it has bothered me. No snow here, but too darn cold and WINDY. I can take the cold - the wind is just going right thorough me!
ReplyDeleteLOVE intervals!! I find that during races, Im actually faster if I do intervals rather than job the whole thing!!
ReplyDeleteFirst: congrats on finishing your 5K.
ReplyDeleteI am a runner for 4 years and certainly no expert but .... every plan/expert will tell you (and so do I) that one speedwork session a week is the max. Two is too much because speedwork is hard for the body.
I would do a speedwork session and alternate the week after with a tempo workout, do 1 long run a week (those are more important than speedwork) and 1 easy run.
Just my 2 cents but if you look it up on the internet you will find that 2 speedwork session are too much.
good luck.