ORN: This morning I ran a tempo run -- two miles easy, two miles hard, two miles easy -- for a total of 6.2 miles in 1:00'20". My target time was 58 minutes and some change, so I blew that. Despite the weather being a wholly reasonable 67° with 94% humidity, I still had trouble making my paces. Yet I'm not too worried about it. For one thing, it's early in the training plan. Also, I'm just coming off an injury. And of course my route this morning was quite hilly. In fact, at the two mile mark, where I am supposed to accelerate to "short tempo pace", I was about 20 meters into a long [1+ mile] series of stair-step uphills. In short, the run was hard and left me soaking wet, tired, and happy to be done with physical activity for the day.
Yesterday was a cross training day, and I put in 45 moderate-effort minutes on a stationary bike. Then, after Little One went to bed, I did the FIRST-recommended resistance training routine. That consists of some squats, lunges, calf-raises, dumbbell rows, and push ups with an exercise ball. How do you do push ups with an exercise ball, you ask? Very carefully, I learned. I place my hands about shoulder-width apart on the ball as my body lays on it with the ball hitting me mid-torso. Then, I try to do a push up. Imagine trying to serve martinis while standing up on a canoe on one leg. Imagine tightrope walking in a wind storm. Imagine trying to balance on one foot atop an upright baseball bat. Doing a push up on an exercise ball is friggin' hard. In demented Weeble fashion, it wants to wobble and make me fall down. It was unpleasant and difficult. What's the point? The effort of trying not to fall on your face, apparently, works your core muscles like crazy [true dat] providing a more intense workout than a standard push up. If I can get through this marathon training plan without a broken nose, it'll be a miracle.
So, I have another cross training day tomorrow, and then I plan on doing my long run Friday, instead of Saturday, on account of some plans we have for the weekend. Friday's the best time for me to do my 13 miler. Starting my day at 4 AM and running 13 miles ought to make work a pleasure.
Those are some hard-core plans. Getting up at 4 usually breaks my will to do anything. Never tried a run at that time, but I wish I could.
ReplyDeleteIt is sure to make you feel great for the rest of the day. I had my 20K run (approx 13 miles) at approx. 7:00 last Sunday and I felt great the rest of the day.