March 31, 2005
The trails are (mostly) clear!
I ran 7 miles like I planned yesterday with the track team, although we had 2 more girls join D and I, so we ended up going really slow, about 9 minute pace. At least the weather was beautiful again. Afterward my husband and I got some good lifting in, probably about an hour. This morning I went for a 10 mile run with D and one of the other girls from the track team. Their spring break starts today, so we ran from my house at 10am, which gave me a nice excuse to have a relaxing morning at home. We did my favorite 10 mile loop, which goes around a nearby lake and includes a 4 mile trail loop. The trails have been under snow and ice since mid-November, but I thought they were worth trying since its been above 60 for the last 3 days. They were really muddy and still had a few icy patches, but it was so much fun to finially get off the roads. That is going to be it for me for running today, because Thursday evening is our youth program at work, so once I finally get into work I am going to be there until 10pm or so. I am glad I got more of my running in earlier this week, since it is raining, 48 degrees and dropping. They are saying we might get snow again tomorrow night or Saturday morning.
Posted by Ann at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
69 degrees!
I ran 6 miles easy with my dad this morning. My dad is who got me into running, taking me to run the kids mile while he ran 5k and 10k races when I was little and running with me in the summers during college. Now we still run together about once a week, which I love just as much as when I was a kid, even though it is weird having me be the one pushing him to go further and faster. I am taking my lunch break at work right now and than this afternoon I am going to run 7 miles with D, the track girl I mentioned in yeterday's post about the first track meet. Its nice to have my girls getting fast enough to make good training partners. It is also suppose to be 69 degrees this afternoon, so I am looking forward to that run. After that the plan is to lift with my husband. Hopefully we will work a little harder than we did on Monday.
Posted by Ann at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)
March 29, 2005
Track Meets Take Forever
Its late, so I will make this quick. I got back a little while ago from my girls first track meet and every year I amazed at just how long they take. I waited to run this morning, because it was only 31 degrees, and while that is not cold, it made me mad to run in temperatures below freezing on a day with a high of 64. Instead, I went to Michigan State campus, where the meet was being held, an hour earlier than I had to meet the team. I had a really nice run along the Riverwalk (a paved trail) and enjoyed the warm weather a ton. I ran out 3 miles at 7:00 pace, ran the 4th mile back in 6:00 and than the final two at 7:00 again. I felt great during the 7:00 parts, like I could run forever, but was surprised at how hard the 6:00 pace felt. I think my endurance held up pretty good over the winter and my recent break from training, but I could use some work on my speed. After that I went to the girls track meet and ran 2 miles with them for their warm up/my cool down, giving me 8 miles for the day. I was pleased with how the girls ran for this early in the season. The highlight being one of my top girls running an okay 3200 (11:36), but following it up only 25 minutes later with a 2:25 800. I have never seen that kind of short distance speed out of her, even when fresh. It was fun to see all the plyometric work and mileage she put in this winter paying off. I really need to get to sleep. I have a morning run scheduled that I have to get up for.
Posted by Ann at 11:04 PM | Comments (1)
March 28, 2005
Spring weather!
I just got back from doing my second run of the day with the track girls that I coach, and spring is finally here! The weather was in the mid-50s and sunny and after all our rain, gloom and lucky if we hit 40 weather of the last month, it was beautiful. This morning I ran 5 miles at a moderate intensity (34:12) and was pleased to be able to run under 7 minute pace with out it hurting. This afternoon I did another 5 at an easy pace (39 minutes) with the track girls that I coach. They have their first meet of the year tomorrow, and I am really excited to see what kind of times they can run, since they trained really hard this winter. After practice, I lifted with my husband, although we did not do as much as we had planned since the gym was packed and we weren't feeling like dealing with the crowds. At least I got a good core workout before we left. Now I am catching up on emails from work, and looking for cheap plane tickets to Flordia to see if I can visit a good friend who recently had a baby, during the school spring break (both my jobs revolve around students' school schedule, so I don't have track practice and have a light week at work next week). So hopefully I will be able to take advantage of this down time in my schedule and get to both see my friend and enjoy even warmer weather than today! (If you can't tell it was a long, cold, icy and snowy winter here in Michigan. I ran more miles on a treadmill this winter than I ever hope to again.)
Posted by Ann at 9:24 PM | Comments (2)
Introduction
Since this is my first entry, I'll tell you a little background information about myself. I am 27, married and live in Michigan. I work with junior high youth and coach high school cross country and track. I ran for a good division 3 program, graduating in 2000. Since than I have a had quite a few injury problems, including knee surgery. A year ago in February, I recovered from my most recent major injury problem and was able to start training hard again. I finally got back into racing shape this past fall, and actually broke my college 5k PR running 17:55 in October. I made it through this past winter without any major injuries, although I am coming off a 6 week down time in training (February and early March)due to minor injury flare ups and a lot of traveling during that time. I am feeling a lot better after my break and am just getting back to serious training and excited to see what I can do in races this summer. I have races planned from 5ks to 10 miles this year. Since all my injury troubles, I have been limiting my actual running miles to about 50-55 miles per week, and adding intensity and cross training to my weeks, rather than more miles. This has seemed to work well for me, since I have been injury free for over a year! I am really excited to join your group. There are so few serious runners near where I live to train or talk running with and I am interested to see what kind of times I can run now that I am finally starting off a year uninjured and serious about my training. I will write more later with my running for the day.
Posted by Ann at 9:43 AM | Comments (1)