This past Tuesday I finally made it to track practice. Even though I've been in PR Training since December, this is only the second one I've been to. We've had crazy snow/ice on multiple Tuesdays, Christmas Eve & New Year's Eve fell on Tuesdays, and I had to work in our downtown office on a few Tuesdays. So I haven't been to Track Tuesday since December 17!
So what happens at track practice? We meet at the local high school track at 6:30. For those first 15 minutes, you warm up on your own. Easy laps around the track, dynamic stretching, whatever your personal routine is. At 6:45 the coaches remind us of the various workouts that we are doing. There were ten groups this past Tuesday - beginner, intermediate, advanced Cherry Blossom, the same three groups for half marathon training that started in December, three more for the marathon training that started in December, and finally the begin/build/base program. A couple of groups had the same workout, so the coaches reviewed 8 different workouts with us.
We all receive spreadsheets at the beginning of the training with our workouts for the whole program. And we get weekly emails that remind us about our training for the week. So you might think we would all know what we are doing...but there seems to be a certain amount of confusion each week regardless!
My workout for the week was 4 to 6 repeats of 400 meters at tempo pace (e.g., comfortably hard) followed by a two minute recovery jog. 400 meters is one lap around the track, and roughly 1/4 of a mile. I thought I might only do 4 repeats since I started practice feeling a little tired, but I rallied about halfway through and ended up doing all 6. My favorite part was the recovery jog (which turned into a recovery walk for me). The recovery jog is in the outside lane, up and back. So while you are going up in the outside lane, most everyone else is doing their running in the 2 inside lanes and there is lots of waving and smiling when people pass each other, which makes track practice that much more fun. The running community is so friendly!
After practice a bunch of us chatted for a few minutes about the upcoming Run Your Heart Out 5k on Sunday which many of us will be running. I picked my race packet up this morning, and the shirt looks a nice valentine-y red.
I've been a proud owner of a fitbit for over two years now. It has helped me increase my activity and lose weight. I will devote a future blog post to my beloved fitbit. Today, I'm focusing on how fitbit helped me discover that I can earn rewards for working out. You can, too!
Fitbit partners with all kinds of health and wellness sites. Two of them are rewards sites, Earndit and EveryMove. These sites both partner with many different fitness trackers like fitbit and apps like runkeeper. You get points for your activities and can turn those points into rewards. Today I earned a really nice shirt from EveryMove and Mondetta Performance Gear.
Over the past couple of years I've earned charity rewards, high-value coupons towards fitness apparel and nutrition items, and discounted health and wellness boxes like bulu box and klutchclub. I even won an Earndit challenge and got a fancy sports bra from Bodyrock.
I have friends on both sites that help motivate me to exercise more and earn more points. You also earn badges for various achievements, which is always fun. And all of this is effortless for me - my fitbit automatically sends both sites information on how many steps I've taken which gets translated into points. All I need do is sign up for new challenges when they interest me and pick out the rewards I want. Win-win, right?
Next weekend I will be doing the Run Your Heart Out 5k (as long as mother nature doesn't dump a whole lot of snow on us again). I am setting a time goal, which is new for me.
For the past couple of years my 5k goals have been along the lines of:
- have fun
- finish the race
- walk for less of the race
- run the whole race
- have fun
Having achieved all of the above, it's time to think about my pace. My best 5k race time last year was 36:40, during last year's Run Your Heart Out 5k. Two things helped make that my best time - (1) the course seems to be a smidge short based on garmin GPS tracking and (2) my brother Josh ran with me and helped keep me on pace and distracted from my discomfort.
If all goes well with Josh's schedule (and mother nature doesn't dump a whole lot of snow on us again), he will be able to pace me again this year. We have set 35 as my goal, with 34 as the stretch goal. It will be a whole different experience to run with a particular time in mind. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with my primary goal - "have fun".
Fortunately I have a secret weapon in my "have fun" arsenal for this race. My friends Katy McMahon and Gina Welc will be running the race, too. We all worked together at Hechinger back in the 80s so it will be a fun reunion. Gina and I have run a couple of races together in the last few months, but this will be our first opportunity to see Katy since we all reconnected on facebook.
Keep your fingers crossed for no snow!
