today was a i-love-to-run day. well, let me back up. last night jona was out at a hockey game with some coworkers, and i was at home playing with my new dog, maggie. (we love her!) i had finished dinner around 6 and by 6:30 i was CRAVING junk food ... i needed some sugar, sugar, sugar. so i ate a fruit bar and a yogurt hoping it would subside the craving, which it did. but oh, how i wanted to sink my teeth into a yummy cookie, gummy anything (yes, molly - i have the love too) or anything yucky bad for you - but OH, so yummy.so today i headed out for my tempo run.
Basic definition: sustained run at faster than usual training pace.
it consisted of a ten minute warm up, twenty minutes of hard running, and ten minute cool down. right at my turn around there was a group of girls running back and forth together racing. i said hello as i turned around and eyed a little girl ahead of me. she looked at me and i yelled "race ya!" and she took off like a bat out of hell ... stranger danger!! she was sooooo freaked out. she ran to the group she was playing with and just stared at me like i was going to kidnap her or something. shoot ... ! didn't mean to scare her. but thanks for the push. :)
tempo runs are an important part of training. they increase your lactate threshold and increase leg turnover. translation: you are able to run longer, harder. (for a good article on the lactate threshold, click here).
so, today was a i-love-to-run day. i was outside, enjoying the sunset, breathing in the cool air, and my tempo run went soooo well. i think it may just have something to do with not eating that cookie (or many cookies) last night. ;)
nice. this past weekend was not a good weekend for me. but i think i'm back into things now. i had an i-love-to-run day yesterday. and i'm doing good with the no-sugar thing...except i DID have some jelly bellies today because we went on the tour. oops!
ReplyDeletethat was a great article. I love runner's world! it has actually been one of the things to get me really excited about running again!
ReplyDeletesounds like your running your little heart out, way to go!
when you run the SL Half, we should meet. My sister Whitney (who now runs with the running group you started) and her hubby are doing the full, and I'm sure I will be up there to cheer them in!! It's always fun to meet people you've been talking to through the blogging world!
i would love it morgan. we need to meet up with erin as well!! we'll definitely set something up ... how fun! :)
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Don't you love amazing runs? I've been trying really hard lately to take my first mile really slow and build up the speed over the rest of the miles. It really does make you feel great.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll tell you--it has now been a week since I finished my month-with-no-junk-food, and I have been feeling like crap. I've been eating just enough chocolate every day to make me feel slightly sick. But it has been just what I needed. I'm now totally excited to get back on the nutrition wagon. Eating healthy, planning my meals, eating dessert, but doing everything in moderation. I'm super excited!
moderation is key ... that is for sure. i am ready for moderation on april 19!!
ReplyDeletei loooove tempo runs. they are so refreshing and they have really helped me improve my speed. yay for speed work!
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