Forgetting things

Today was supposed to be my tempo day. I didn't want to get out and do it, but I was planning on just forcing myself to go. I just told myself, "get out the door and see what happens."

The weather was cold. And I set out faster than I intended just to warm up. Midway through my warm up mile, I noticed that something was odd. More specifically, somethings were bouncier than they were supposed to be.

I debated turning back to change into my sports bra. But the weather wasn't great and I didn't think I would venture out again if I went back.

So I set out to do some easy three miles. I ended up keeping a fairly brisk pace (brisk for me) of 8:26/mile. It also started raining a mile into the run reducing visibility. I guess it worked out for the best that I skipped a workout run.

I probably had the tempo miles in me. But after four hours of sleep, and rock star fueling (thanks to genetics prelim), it was nice to "rest."

Clearly studying hard . 

The run was a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving weekend. I probably will take it easy this week, because my shins have been feeling sorer than usual. 

I hope everyone's week is progressing nicely. And do you ever forget important things for a run? Do you usually head back or just go with it? 

Best Dream Ever!

Don't you hate it when you have a super realistic dream? Then you wake up and the sad reality hits.

I had one of those moments this morning. This dream was so good that I tried to get back into it by lying in bed for thirty extra minutes thinking about the dream. 

In my dream, I ran a 2:09:00 marathon. I just pushed myself really hard and at one point, I ran next to Kara Goucher. After I finished, the media surrounded me and asked me about my training and etc. And all I could say was, I don't know. I just went for it. And because I was an elite runner, Kara Goucher and Ryan Hall were my best friends. Additionally, everyone loved me, because it was like a Cinderella story except with athletics. 

After I ran the marathon, my first thought was "Yay, I have a BQ!" Then after a few days, I had another marathon coming up. But I was really afraid, because what if the first race was a fluke? The second race started off badly and I ended up dropping out after a mile. People tried to comfort me by saying that my longest training run so far had been 12 miles, and for that I really did well in the first marathon. And that the next will be better. 

Needless to say, when I woke up, I was extremely disappointed. I was still my chemical engineering student self who has yet to break 2 hours in a half marathon.

I wish this was me crossing the finish line at 2:09:00 for the marathon. 

But thanks to that dream, I went out and conquered my long run of 12 miles. The course was hilly and I was not keeping the pace for a 2:09 marathon, but I didn't give up even when the going got hard. I wanted to quit after six miles, but I kept chugging along and kept a fairly even pace and averaged 9:22/mile.

My school has an arboretum that my long runs always pass through. 

Do you ever have running dreams? Or dreams that you wish would never end? Sorry for lack of photos, but you can't take photos of dreams. What a shame. 

Running without a watch

Today, I was forced to run without a garmin. I briefly considered waiting for it to charge, but I didn't want to risk not going for a run at all. So, I forced my bf to accompany for the first three miles. If I couldn't spend the run obsessing over my mile splits and distance, I needed distraction

I made him go even though he didn't have long workout pants. I'm a fantastic girlfriend. 

But turns out, running without numbers might be the best thing ever. 

In the beginning, I slowed down instead of pushing it. There was no watch telling me that I was running slowly, so I just took it easy. 

I even sat down on a bench that I've always wanted to try sitting on. I hadn't been missing out on much. It was cold and not very comfy. 

It was also good to slow down because my bf has been experiencing some pain in his achilles tendon area. He's had it for weeks. Anyone know what that could be caused by? Or what to do to treat it? 

After 2 miles, he decided to walk home and I set out to run a little longer. My legs settled into a nice rhythm and I enjoyed the alone time. I ended up completing 5.44 miles at an unknown pace. I wanted to run longer, but the light was fading and I was sort of dressed in darks. Great for stealth attacks, but not so great for night running. 

My hair is black too. I could totally be a ninja.

All in all, I am very happy. At times like these, I am so thankful to be a runner. Especially since I may have had a giant cotton candy for lunch that needed to be burned off. 

Tell me, do you always run with a garmin? What was your favorite running moment of the week? 

Winter is here

And I kind of miss fall. 

Path that I always walk by on the way to class

Today was the first real snow fall of the season. And while I love snow, I will miss all the pretty leaves.

This is the prettiest tree in the engineering quad. We are good friends. 

I was thankful that I got my run in before the snow thing happened. Not that it snowed hard, but now I get to stay warm and under the covers. 

The run itself was disappointing. I was planning on doing 3x1 mile intervals at 7:37/mile with 0.5 mile rest in between. But I somehow lost steam in the middle of it. I know that I can do it. I knocked out a 5K, 3.1 consecutive miles, in 7:34/mile. This should have been easy. 

See? I'm not lying. It's documented. 

However, for whatever reason, I couldn't keep up the pace. I would like to think that it was the three hours of sleep I got last night. But probably it was a combination of my weak will, exhaustion, and the fact that I haven't ran much in the last week. On the bright side, I did get in 4.36 miles. 

The weird part was that after deciding to not complete my intervals, I couldn't bring my pace down to my normal easy pace. I ran the first mile at 9:20 as a warm up, and ran the rest of the miles at a 8:12/mile pace. 

So it's sort of like a tempo. Right? Right? 

Tomorrow, I am definitely shooting for slower miles in preparation for this weekend's long run. 

Winter in California. Definitely different than winter in NY. Doesn't it look like my dad has a halo? 

Happy FRIDAY!!!! I'm excited about sleeping. Lots of sleeping. What are you guys excited about? 

My Wild Tuesday

Sorry that I haven't posted anything in a while. For no reason at all, I just took a break from life for the weekend. I did not go run or do anything particularly productive. I just did the things that I HAD to do for school. I was planning on running during the weekend, but I just wasn't feeling it. So it's been 5 days since my last run, and today I was more than ready to come back to the running world.

Although now even though the desire is here, thanks to my last round of prelims, I am actually unsure of how much actual running will get done.

Yay running! 

Before college, I wondered what it would be like. I thought it would be filled with wild nights like Wasted Wednesdays, Thirsty Thursdays, and just plain old weekend partying. But I did not magically turn into a party girl with college. I'd still much prefer salted caramel mocha at Starbucks to a cocktail.

And now that I am a runner, my wild Tuesday night is going for a run the day before a prelim. 

Look at this wildchild go. Partying it up with a run. 

And posing awkwardly on purpose.

We can't take credit for this awkward pose. We saw someone do it online. It doesn't look as bad because he's wearing workout clothes, but the guy online had a suit on.  

So now I am all recharged and whatnot. And ready to take on more studying. 

Parting shot of my school at night. 

I hope you guys are having a great week! 

Dreadful Tempo

So, after getting your input on the training plan, I decided to do the laziest thing possible. I decided to try out the Smart Coach at Runner's World. Since I only had about 9 weeks of training left, I didn't feel like tweaking Higdon's plan. I figured, Smart Coach will just automatically adjust whatever plan it had. It also told me exactly what pace I should run.

Me and my new lover, the foam roller. Instead of lazying around after my run, I roll out my legs  for about a minute. I am that diligent. 

Unfortunately, Smart Coach had a tempo run scheduled for Wednesday. I procrastinated and pushed the run to yesterday. All day, I kept on giving myself little pep talks. If I can run a 5K in 7:34/mile pace, I can pump out four miles at the prescribed 8:09/min pace.

I would just like to say that I beasted it. It was hard for me mentally to complete the run especially at mile 4, but I pushed through it. I mean by the time I was on the third tempo mile, there was no way in hell that I was going to give up and do the run some other day. I didn't want my first two tempo miles to have been for nothing. After a mile warm up at 10:08, I was able to pick it up for first tempo mile and ran it at 8:04. Miles 2, 3, and 4 were 8:06, 8:04, and 7:48 respectively.

This is my beast pose. It's a little awkward, but  I can't take good photos of myself. 

The best part about the whole run was that after the miles, for my cool down I ran the last mile at 8:49, which felt really slow. In total, I went for 6.25 miles with an average pace of 8:31/mile.

One thing though was that I purposely picked a flatter route. Is that cheating?

A lot flatter than my usual runs. 

Have a great Friday everyone! 

Training Plan

PRing is hard work. I know that I can't just run whenever I feel like at whichever paces I feel like and expect to hit my goal time. But finding a right training plan is so hard.

For the Oak Tree Half, I found my training plan by checking out two years worth of Runner's World Magazine from the school library. Then I went through each issue cover to cover in the span of two days. Luckily for me, I found a perfect six week plan with a day of intervals, a day of tempo, and a day of long run. And I followed that plan like the world was going to end if I didn't.

Sort of like this, but less hardcore. Since the training was during the summer. And also at the beach. 

But now, I have an important race coming up, but no training plan.  Every time I think about having to hit certain paces for a tempo or intervals, I get stressed out and lose the motivation to run. I think I can't, before I even step out the door. I think that for my first half, there was less stress to PR, because I could have ran that half in 5 hours and it still would have been a PR. Additionally, I did most of my training runs by the beach in Cali.

Elevation profile of my run at the beach. It changes maybe about 40ft at most. 

Elevation profile of my runs now. It changes around 300ft. 

Since I don't have easy access to a track or a treadmill, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to run my longer intervals on the track, the hills are daunting. 

This also is probably why I had such a hard time at Oak Tree Half. I went from sea level flat training runs to higher altitude hilly course. 

My point is that I don't know what to do about a training plan. It would be nice to have one, but at the same time, I am afraid of not being able to hit my paces. These are the times when I wish I had a coach telling me what to do. 

Exactly my problem. 

How do you guys find a training plan? How do you keep yourself from being intimidated by the specific paces that you hope to hit?