More running success

Aren't our bodies amazing things?

You give 'em a good flogging and they just keep getting better.

You may remember my dismay at trying to run at 10kms/hour 1 1/2 weeks ago when I tried to run it at intervals of 4 mins (run) and 2 mins (walk) and it killed me...Well since then I've run at intervals of 3:2 which has been much more manageable but this weekend has been quite interesting.

Was sick Wed/Thurs - so no exercise. Still felt yuck on Friday but went to work, and then thought - "I'll just do a light work out at the gym" (she says sneakily to herself).
Then "I'll just try a little bit of running - after all I can stop any time" So I did a couple of intervals of 3:2, and then thought "Well if I increase my recovery time to account for my sick body - I could run for longer - right?" So I did. I ran 3:3 for 5 kms! (Not quite light me thinks). On my last set my HB arrived to pick me up. But he had errands to run and couldn't wait for me to finish - said he 'd come back. OK. So I finished my running, cooled down with some walking, and walking, and walking. At the 6.6 kms mark I thought, "Heck if he turns up now I'll be too close to 7kms to stop - I'd better run to get there quicker. So I did. And then it happened again at the 7.6km mark, and again at the 8.6km mark. By then I was so sure that he was going to walk in at any minute that I decided to just keep running until I couldn't run any more. And he turned up at the 9.5km mark and I had to cool down again. Holy heck - I did nearly 10kms without meaning too - and this was meant to be light! Anyway - felt good afterwards, and haven't had any more cold symptoms - Yeah for exercise.

So having had two unexpected days off during the week, I gave up my Saturday rest day, joined the WW exercise challenge and headed off to the gym again in the morning. Now keeping in mind that Sunday is my big run day, I needed to make sure I didn't run, so I did 60mins walking speed/incline intervals on the treadmill, covering another 5.5 kms. - Plus some other light stuff for the exercise challenge, but having to be careful not to overdo it before the Sunday City/Bay training.

So Sunday....my big success.
Having already covered at least 15kms in the last two days, and not sleeping well Saturday night, I was skeptical about my 4 km race pace run. I have already revised by race pace to a minimum of 5:1 @10kms/hour, in case I can't run the whole 12 ks, but I knew I wasn't up to this even for the 4 K run. So my plan was to try the 4:2 intervals that I couldn't manage comfortably a week or so ago. but guess what? After the 4 mins I still felt good so I did 5! and did the whole 4 kms at 5:2 intervals! And in my last set I ran 6 mins to complete the 4 kms.!! Much better than I could have hoped for and not far off of my 5:1 plan.!!!

Now I know this is only over 4 K's and not the whole 12, but according to the training schedule I'm doing, I only need to be able to run 4 k's at this stage. And I know I can run at least 5 k's continuously at a lower speed, I just need to pull up my speed at the moment, whilst my endurance is within the required range for the training schedule.

Clear as mud?
Sick of my training rambles?
Sorry, but this blog is mainly for me, I need to have records of my journey to reflect back on, and if you happen to gain something from it as well - what a bonus!

Any way - weigh in tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. Although I have been very good all week, the scales were sitting on 63.4 early in the week, and then Friday morning jumped up to 64 and have sat there ever since - so I fear there will be no loss to record this week, which is making my goal weight date more and more difficult to achieve. Ohh well - we'll see. As Doris Day sang Que Sera Sera (What ever will be, will be)

For my updated Beginner Runners Training schedule - try this link:
http://www.sendmefile.com/00438956
Hope it works!