You know how we all need someone to toot our horn? To make a small accomplishment feel like something worth sharing? I know I am often the first to dismiss my progress as “old lady running,” but in truth, I am proud of my achievements. Runkeeper and I go way back, I started tracking my runs about 3 years ago when my son came up with the hare-brained scheme to sign his family up for a local 5k. As a first-born child I am hooked on praise and concrete goals. Runkeeper (or any tracking app) gives you that instant feedback that the people-pleaser in me so craves.
Runkeeper does more than that for me, the little confetti animations when I achieve a new fastest pace in a week/month/fortnight etc breaks up the miles and gives me a second to reflect. The Richmond Marathon took place this last weekend and though I didn’t run, or even consider running the marathon, I know several people who did run the half-marathon and I have even considered trying it next year.
I have been working on a “training plan” using a more structured approach than my typical go out an run and see how I feel. For the past month, I have been doing one longer run a week, 5 or 6 miles at a slow pace, running for duration rather than speed. I have been shooting for around an hour and found this to be a very pleasant run, usually the run I enjoy most all week. Who would have thought a long run would have been my favorite? Not me.
I discussed my version of a “tempo run” here, I have tweaked this a bit. Once a week I run around my 5k pace, which I believe can be improved by a bit, as I find the adrenaline rush I get at the beginning of a race flusters me. I am trying to push myself more instead of my usual, lazy running.
I have incorporated sprint workouts into my training, I am sure the neighbors think I have lost my mind but I can really tell the difference in my endurance since starting these sprint runs. I am not that fast, I feel like I am really fast but Runkeeper would beg to differ. I run at about 7:30 pace for quarter miles at a time for 1-2 miles then finish with a 8:30 ish mile. I like these days least, but maybe in time I will learn to love them.
Yesterday, Runkeeper sent me the nicest email.
This run was my longest duration and my greatest distance and my largest elevation climb! That’s a lot of adjectives for one run! The best part is that I felt good running, not fast but that wasn’t my objective. I could have run faster as my last half mile was almost a minute faster than the rest of my run. I will fear no 10k!
3 years into my running journey, thinking about it makes me a little emotional. My kids are so much bigger than they were, looking at the pictures from our first race together it doesn’t seem possible that my son is now in high school. I have lost weight, though that wasn’t my goal, I sleep better and I have more confidence to tackle things that I know will be difficult. I will definitely write more about the insomnia thing, running has possibly saved my life in that respect.