Week 1 complete

Well, in a lot of ways, this was a bad week to start a training plan. But I have managed to stay on track. Mostly.

On Tuesday, I worked 10 hours, so when I came home, I really did not want to run. But, I put on my workout clothes and went down to the fitness room, determined to get in my 4 miles. But all the treadmills were taken. So, then my options were either going outside (which I just could not bring myself to do), not doing anything at all (which would have made me both mad and guilty), or substituting a workout on my Air Climber.

I pulled out the Air Climber and found the DVD, and started the workout. About 5 minutes in, the resistance band snapped, causing me to whack myself in the face with the plastic handle. At this point, I thought I would be justified in quitting, but I didn't. I stayed on the damn thing for 40 minutes. I don't think it really counted for 4 miles, but I'm counting it for 2 or 3.

The training plan for Wednesday said 4-mile Fartlek, but I went to the Fleet Feet speed workout instead. We (my running friends and I) got there for the early start and got to talk to Coach Leach. He told us the workout, which was to run 800 m out, take a recovery, then do the way back in two 400 m stretches, with recovery in between. We were to focus on "foot popping," or trying to get our feet off the ground quickly. He also said that when we were struggling for breath, to focus on long exhales.

We did three sets of 800-400-400, plus the mile to and from the store, plus the mile and a half to and from the train... so my total for the night was about six and a half miles.

I took Thursday off, and on Friday I did 3 miles on the treadmill. Because the River Bank Run route apparently has a lot of hills, and I don't do much work with hills in Chicago, I did a treadmill hill workout that I got from runnersworld.com. I did a half mile at 0%, then did 1 minute at 2%, 1 minute at 3%, and 1 minute at 4%, followed by 3 minutes back at 0%. I repeated the 2-3-4-recovery thing 4 times, then tacked on 2 more minutes of recovery to get to 3 miles. While the hills were hard, it sort of made the workout go by faster.

Today I went out and did one of the most miserable runs of my running career. It was cold out -- 25 degrees with 10-15 mph winds. I have run in colder conditions, though, so I thought I was prepared. And for the first 3 miles, it wasn't bad. However, what I didn't realize was that the reason it wasn't so bad was that the wind was at my back. When I turned around, I thought I might die. Icy winds were coming almost directly at me. The cold was making my eyes water, and then the tears were freezing on my face. But somehow, I finished. Six miles in 1:07:04, which is like an 11:10 pace or so.

Miles on my 2150s: 21.5
Miles on my foundations: 15

Right now I am icing my shins, because they are still giving me some trouble. Still nothing on the level of last year, but I'm trying to make sure I don't let it get to that level. If they are bothering me all day, I'll skip my run tomorrow, and maybe Tuesday too.

But if all goes well, here's the Week 2 plan:
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: off
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: speed work
Thursday: off
Friday: 3 miles (perhaps the hill workout again unless we do hills on Wednesday)
Saturday: 7 miles