day-to-day:
Monday: 5mi run. a huge thank you to the running weather gods for hearing my plea and providing absolutely beautiful weather for my run. it was cool, there was a great breeze, and there was no humidity to be found. I went for a nice little scamper through the neighbourhood and loved it.
Tuesday: it was a pick-your-own 30-minute workout, so I did a 15-minute Get Focused Ab Burner workout and a 15-minute Better Butt workout. both were fine, except for the split jumps in the second one, but otherwise nothing major. guess I'm becoming a planking expert or something.
Wednesday: 5mi run. was supposed to be a tempo run, but my batteries weren't fully charged. but I did have a change of scenery. I got up a few minutes early and drove over to Shelby Farms, which was pretty nice. the trail begins going through the woods, which I really enjoyed. kind of made me feel like I was back in Coorg. and it helped me work on picking up my feet when I run, since there are lots of tree roots and various things across the trail path. after about 1.5 miles, you emerge onto the access road that runs parallel to Walnut Grove, which I followed up to the lake and back. it was cool, since I could see all the traffic on the main road but didn't have to deal with it. I got a little winded around mile 3.5, so I walked for about 400 meters and then ran the rest. the main downside to running through the woods, though, was that my GPS signal was weak, so I don't know how accurate the distance was. it was about 5 minutes slower overall than Monday's run, which I think sounds about right, but I don't know for sure. it was definitely nice to have a change of scenery, though, and I really enjoyed the bit through the woods.
Thursday & Friday: yep, skipped those workouts. oops :/
Saturday: 12mi run on the Greenline [see below]. wow. it was long, but it was good. I ran the first 10k straight through [my fastest 10k ever! 2 minutes faster than my race in March 2012] and then walked for about 400 meters. Katie Walsh met me at Highland with cold water [she is a godsend] and then ran ahead of me for a bit. at the end, especially from miles 10 to 12, the intervals were shorter and slower with a bit more walking than I maybe would have liked, but I'm still pretty happy with how it went, and I'm feeling more confident about my race. which is in 3 WEEKS! I can't believe that from the beginning of July, we're down to only 3 weeks from race day. the moment of truth is nearly upon us. also, I met two really nice women on my run. they passed me at one point, but then they stopped to walk, so I passed them and stayed ahead of them for a bit until near the end of my run. I ran into them again in the parking lot, and they said they had been using me to pace them and that I was maintaining a really good, consistent pace throughout my run, which was a really nice thing to hear. pacing is one of those things I sometimes worry about, and it was nice to have complete strangers say something like that, especially when it was toward the end of my run, and I was feeling as though I were less consistent than at the beginning. so thank you, random women, and hopefully we can be running buddies again soon.
my recent Shelby Farms Park obsession:
for months I have been intending to utilize some of the trails of Shelby Farms Park, and this week I got out and explored two of them. and I really liked them both.
the trail off Germantown Parkway and Walnut Bend I really liked because it was pretty quiet and isolated, and because part of it is an actual trail through the woods. it was good practice for picking up my feet while I run, and I just like that it reminded me of trekking through the jungle in Coorg. it was pretty dark when I first set out, so whenever I run that one in the future, I think I'll give it an extra 15 minutes to have a bit more light through the trees. it's good for runs around 5 miles.
I'd been hearing and reading about the Greenline for over a year and had been wanting to check it out - especially now that it comes all the way out to the Park - and I really enjoyed it. it's a straight run from Mullins Station at Farm Road all the way down to Tillman [parallel to I-40 / Sam Cooper, but with very minimal traffic noise - a HUGE plus], it's flat, and - most importantly - it's shaded. it was pretty cool when I ran out there on Saturday, with only a few small spots of sunshine [yet I still somehow managed to get a tan. go figure]. and even though it was Saturday and there were a good number of people out, it only seemed to get crowded toward the end, around 10, which was really nice. and it was nice to set up a meeting with a friend and see a familiar face at my halfway point. especially a familiar face bearing water. cold water. my only complaint about the Greenline is that it doesn't have water fountains. I am someone who hates carrying water bottles, and I forgot my Camelbak, so having that water break at the midway point was huge. I had some Gu Chomps with me - the watermelon ones - and I chomped on a few every 3 miles, which helped, but water is always the key. other than that, however, I loved the Greenline and will definitely be utilizing it for more of my long runs. it's such a sense of accomplishment to say that I ran from Farm Road to Highland and back. pretty cool.
here's to running more of the 901 in the coming weeks / months.
woo pig.
xx
Monday: 5mi run. a huge thank you to the running weather gods for hearing my plea and providing absolutely beautiful weather for my run. it was cool, there was a great breeze, and there was no humidity to be found. I went for a nice little scamper through the neighbourhood and loved it.
Tuesday: it was a pick-your-own 30-minute workout, so I did a 15-minute Get Focused Ab Burner workout and a 15-minute Better Butt workout. both were fine, except for the split jumps in the second one, but otherwise nothing major. guess I'm becoming a planking expert or something.
Wednesday: 5mi run. was supposed to be a tempo run, but my batteries weren't fully charged. but I did have a change of scenery. I got up a few minutes early and drove over to Shelby Farms, which was pretty nice. the trail begins going through the woods, which I really enjoyed. kind of made me feel like I was back in Coorg. and it helped me work on picking up my feet when I run, since there are lots of tree roots and various things across the trail path. after about 1.5 miles, you emerge onto the access road that runs parallel to Walnut Grove, which I followed up to the lake and back. it was cool, since I could see all the traffic on the main road but didn't have to deal with it. I got a little winded around mile 3.5, so I walked for about 400 meters and then ran the rest. the main downside to running through the woods, though, was that my GPS signal was weak, so I don't know how accurate the distance was. it was about 5 minutes slower overall than Monday's run, which I think sounds about right, but I don't know for sure. it was definitely nice to have a change of scenery, though, and I really enjoyed the bit through the woods.
Thursday & Friday: yep, skipped those workouts. oops :/
Saturday: 12mi run on the Greenline [see below]. wow. it was long, but it was good. I ran the first 10k straight through [my fastest 10k ever! 2 minutes faster than my race in March 2012] and then walked for about 400 meters. Katie Walsh met me at Highland with cold water [she is a godsend] and then ran ahead of me for a bit. at the end, especially from miles 10 to 12, the intervals were shorter and slower with a bit more walking than I maybe would have liked, but I'm still pretty happy with how it went, and I'm feeling more confident about my race. which is in 3 WEEKS! I can't believe that from the beginning of July, we're down to only 3 weeks from race day. the moment of truth is nearly upon us. also, I met two really nice women on my run. they passed me at one point, but then they stopped to walk, so I passed them and stayed ahead of them for a bit until near the end of my run. I ran into them again in the parking lot, and they said they had been using me to pace them and that I was maintaining a really good, consistent pace throughout my run, which was a really nice thing to hear. pacing is one of those things I sometimes worry about, and it was nice to have complete strangers say something like that, especially when it was toward the end of my run, and I was feeling as though I were less consistent than at the beginning. so thank you, random women, and hopefully we can be running buddies again soon.
my recent Shelby Farms Park obsession:
for months I have been intending to utilize some of the trails of Shelby Farms Park, and this week I got out and explored two of them. and I really liked them both.
the trail off Germantown Parkway and Walnut Bend I really liked because it was pretty quiet and isolated, and because part of it is an actual trail through the woods. it was good practice for picking up my feet while I run, and I just like that it reminded me of trekking through the jungle in Coorg. it was pretty dark when I first set out, so whenever I run that one in the future, I think I'll give it an extra 15 minutes to have a bit more light through the trees. it's good for runs around 5 miles.
I'd been hearing and reading about the Greenline for over a year and had been wanting to check it out - especially now that it comes all the way out to the Park - and I really enjoyed it. it's a straight run from Mullins Station at Farm Road all the way down to Tillman [parallel to I-40 / Sam Cooper, but with very minimal traffic noise - a HUGE plus], it's flat, and - most importantly - it's shaded. it was pretty cool when I ran out there on Saturday, with only a few small spots of sunshine [yet I still somehow managed to get a tan. go figure]. and even though it was Saturday and there were a good number of people out, it only seemed to get crowded toward the end, around 10, which was really nice. and it was nice to set up a meeting with a friend and see a familiar face at my halfway point. especially a familiar face bearing water. cold water. my only complaint about the Greenline is that it doesn't have water fountains. I am someone who hates carrying water bottles, and I forgot my Camelbak, so having that water break at the midway point was huge. I had some Gu Chomps with me - the watermelon ones - and I chomped on a few every 3 miles, which helped, but water is always the key. other than that, however, I loved the Greenline and will definitely be utilizing it for more of my long runs. it's such a sense of accomplishment to say that I ran from Farm Road to Highland and back. pretty cool.
here's to running more of the 901 in the coming weeks / months.
woo pig.
xx
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