Do you run on your vacations? I went on a 2 week road trip with my wife and beagle, we drove from New York City to Wyoming (and back), which is a really long way. We covered more than 5,000 miles, and while we did some high-altitude hiking (10 - 11,000 feet or so) and some biking in the Tetons (and good 8,000 feet) which couldn't have done any harm exercise wise, I didn't get any running in. I did take my running shoes, and even took my Runner's World iPhone armband, almost as vital as running shoes, but alas they never saw daylight.
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| This is a really long way. I mean, a really long way. |
Before I took my 2 week extended rest, I did one run "free of the couch" which was a reasonable 2.8 miles in about 27 mins. It's short of my 5k pace by quite some margin, and my focus between now and October 27th is to gain some speed. Beating 30 mins is a must, beating my 28 mins 48 seconds is a target, and coming in close to 25 mins is a stretch target. I have 3 weeks!
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| Will my legs and lungs be reliable as Old Faithful? |
My two runs since I got back have told me I am up against it somewhat. To beat 25 mins, I have to average 8 mins/miles. During this whole exercise, I haven't even come close.
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| Going in the wrong direction... |
It seems there are 2 ways I can target going faster - one is to put in more mileage and another is to run faster, more often. So this week, I am going to do 3 miles a day, starting today and target 26 mins minutes by the end of the week, Sun - Friday. Take the weekend off and then next week, run 4 miles a day for 5 continuous days, and then the final week, before race day, follow this chart from Runner's World for a 25/min run.
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| Runner's World, June 2012 |
No pressure, eh?
