BAA Plan Week 2 & #RWRunStreak

The BAA Plan Week 2 has come to a close and once again I finished all four prescribed workouts, albeit still too fast for my target paces.

Workout 1:  1-2 mi warm up, 8 x 1/4 mi at half marathon pace (7:00-7:15) with 90 seconds of jogging in between, 1-2 mi cool down

1 mi warm up @ 7:48
8 x 1/4 mi (5:58-6:40 each, recovery jogs at 7:30-8:20 each)
1.3 mi cool down @ 7:38

Workout 2: 3-4 mi easy run (8:15 - 8:50)

4 mi @ 7:31

Workout 3: 4-5 mi aerobic run (7:50-8:10)

5 mi @ 7:00

Workout 4: Long Run: 7-9 mi easy (8:15 - 8:50)

10 mi @ 7:46

Thanksgiving day also started the #RWRunStreak challenge.  RW stands for Runner's World (magazine) and the challenge is to run at least one mile every.single.day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.  37 days of consecutive running.

This will be a challenge for me because I already feel that 4 days of running per week is a challenge to fit in so my plan is to do the BAA plan workouts on 4 of the days and run 1 mile the other 3 days of the week.  This will make it more doable for me mentally and physically.  Wish me luck!

BAA Plan Week 1

In order to increase the consistency of my running, one of the tactics I am trying is following a plan.  The Boston Athletic Association has a number of training plans for the marathon.  I picked the level one plan as it is built around 4 days of running/week, an optimal amount for me.  Week 1 kicked off 11/16 and I am proud to say that I nailed all four of the workouts.

One thing I really like about this plan is that it features fairly specific paces for each workout based on what your goal marathon finish time is.  I picked a marathon finish goal time of 3:15.  Yes that's pretty fast - and would be a big PR for me, but it is my "conditions are ideal, training was ideal" goal.  Based on that, here are my goal pace times:

Easy Run: 8:15 - 8:50
Aerobic Runs: 7:50-8:10
Marathon Pace Runs/Intervals; 7:25-7:35
Half Marathon Pace Runs/Intervals: 7:00-7:15
10K Pace Intervals: 6:40 - 6:55
5K Pace Intervals: 6:20-6:30

On that note, the paces seem so SLOW.  I'm sure I won't be saying that once the workouts ramp up, but the most difficult piece of week 1 was running much slower than I am used to, even for "fast" workouts.

Workout 1:  1-2 mi warm up, 8 x 1/4 mi at half marathon pace (7:00-7:15) with 90 seconds of jogging in between, 1-2 mi cool down

1.43 mi warm up @ 7:42
8 x 1/4 mi (6:12-6:29 each, recovery jogs at 7:50-8:05 each)
1.44 mi cool down @ 7:52

Workout 2: 3-4 mi easy run (8:15 - 8:50)

4 mi @ 7:49

Workout 3: 4-5 mi aerobic run (7:50-8:10)

5 mi @ 7:12

Workout 4: Long Run: 7-9 mi easy (8:15 - 8:50)

10 mi @ 7:44

Struggles

I haven't blogged much and as my last post indicated, my running has been a little all over the place.

1. I was/am trying hard to become a "morning runner".  Unfortunately, I seem to forgot that becoming a morning runner requires me to be a nighttime sleeper.  What does it mean to be a nighttime sleeper? First, I would have to go to bed earlier.  Most nights I am trying to get to bed between 9:30 and 10:00.  Even if I wasn't trying to get up by 5 to run, I am still really tired when my non-morning-run alarm goes off at 5:30.  SO.  I should be trying to go to bed earlier.  Given that the end of the day is the only time I have for myself, I have a hard time giving it up.

Second, I haven't really slept through the night in a while.  Sometimes it is one of my children that is waking me up.  Sometimes it is the mouse that lives in our attic, evading the trap we have sent.  Sometimes I have to pee.  Regardless of what wakes me up, I have tremendous difficulty getting back to sleep because my thoughts start wandering.  If I manage to fall back asleep, the alarm at 5:30 often gets snoozed until 6:15.  And then boy am I really late. 

Third, running in the morning just doesn't FEEL the same as running at the end of the day.  Yes, it's nice to be done and have the full evening free.  But at the end of the day, when my body is tense as all hell, the run helps loosen that up.  And running in the morning isn't really preventing that from occurring in the first place.  Maybe I haven't given it enough data points to really make a sound judgment on that one, though.

I'm still going to attempt getting a morning run in.

2. I was in no man's land.  I don't have a training plan for right now and my next race isn't until January.  I have found that I do well when I have a plan to follow.  SO, i remedied that in a two pronged approach.  1) The training plans created for the Boston marathon start today! 2) I have asked a friend's coach husband for help with my marathon training plan, which likely will start post-Christmas.  My weeks from now until 4/18 will be more regimented!