More Pokey Speedwork and a Long Run

*SIGH* I am so ready for this week to be over.

I wish it was Monday, November 12.

D’s team would have won the football championship and football season would be officially over. My home life could get somewhat back to its strange state of normal.

Big Sur would be over. I would be happy and content about finishing my very first half-marathon and the stress and anticipation would be gone.

But nooooooooo…….it’s not November 12 yet. :(

The calendar is just not cooperating with me. I get knots in my stomach just thinking about the coming weeks………




So I’ll ramble about this past week instead.

I somehow managed to get some short runs in on Tuesday and Thursday, and tried to incorporate some pseudo-speedwork into each.

Tuesday I ran around the park during football practice, and then hit the streets some for the "speedwork." I found a little make-shift *track* for myself at the entrance to a gated community – per my eyeball, it seemed like maybe a ¼ mile – so I tried doing some speedwork around there. It worked great until cars started trying to pull into their neighborhood and there was some freak running around there in the dark. So instead of getting run over, I called it a night, jogged back to the park and watched the end of practice. I think my workout ended up being about 45 minutes.

Last night (Thursday) was one of those nights where it took everything I had to get myself out of the house to run. I was exhausted, it was 9pm….but I got out. Hubby chided me on the way out the door “don’t fall asleep while you’re running, okay?” Funny, funny man. But yes, I was THAT tired. I just needed a quickie workout.

So I opted to mix it up again and did some run/walk intervals. By the time the workout was over, I had run close to 3 miles – 2min run/30second walk intervals. And it felt GREAT....even after starting out being so tired. I didn’t even feel like I was running. And you know what – my average pace was lower than if I had run it normally.

I’ve had that phenomenon before, and that’s why proponents of the run/walk system say it works so well. You run faster during the running intervals since you aren’t as fatigued. VERY TRUE.

So I spent most of the workout pondering Big Sur in my mind. Should Micheline and I attempt the run/walk method instead? There is NO doubt in my mind that that would be a super easy way to knock down the 13.1.

OR…do I treat it like my long runs, where we run and then just take walk breaks as needed?

I get pretty fatigued during long runs, which I don’t think would happen using the run/walk approach.

OR….maybe we run/walk – but lengthen the run interval?

Shoot, I don’t know. I mulled it over in my mind for 30-some-odd-minutes last night, and still didn’t come up with what I think is best. I need to talk to Micheline. But it did make me realize that we don’t have a plan. And I NEED a plan. I’m anal that way. A true bean-counter by trade :P

Tomorrow is a somewhat long run with the TRC....Pat for sure, and hopefully Lisa too. I am planning on 6-7 miles for myself - not sure how many my cohorts will knock down!

Happy weekend everyone!