Two weeks in: Holy hills!

Weekly update post on the 2012 goals! This week had it's ups and downs, was really crazy but I survived!

Goal #1 - 4:10 at the Pig: This week I took a big and necessary step toward this goal -- I registered for the race! I secretly thought about wimping out and doing Cleveland instead, but now I'm committed!

Training went very well this week! I did my second tempo run, then did hill repeats on Thursday. I missed MIT Saturday due to crummy weather, so as an added bonus I ran more hills Sunday during my 10 mile run! Since I did most of my long run solo (Brandie came with for the first 4), I sped up and averaged out at 9:47. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I ran a total of 27 miles for the week (plus one walking).

Elevation profile of Sunday's run

Scheduled miles for this week (slightly modified, of course!)
Today: 4 miles easy
Tuesday: 6.5 miles tempo
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 4 miles hills
Friday: Swim
Saturday: 10 miles
Total: 28.5

Goal #2 -- Train for a triathlon: Except for spin classes, no movement on this one this week!

Goal #3 -- Lift more: I've resigned to the fact that I only really have time to lift twice a week, but I'm getting that in!

Goal #4 -- Learn to teach something new: Nothing here, either.

Goal #5 -- Weigh 120: Had several missteps this week. I'm back on track now!


Goal #6 -- Increase blog traffic: Traffic is down this month, way down :( Debuting a new feature tonight -- Music Mondays!

2012: The official goals post

As this is auto-posting, I'm getting back into a familiar routine.

While most of the world is sleeping in on Saturday morning, once again I'm up early. Before dawn early. I'm putting on my cold weather gear, packing a bag of warm clothes to change into after, and warming up the Fit.

I'm driving 40 minutes to join the long procession of cars turning into Thomas Worthington High School for the Marathoner in Training program (MIT). Jeff's going to gather all 400 of us in the gym to kick the winter season off. He'll call out "10:30s!!!" then we hit the Olentangy Trail, sun, rain, sleet or snow. We'll yearn for the heat of summer, just as we yearned for the cold of winter in August.

I'm going to stop with the "I must be crazy for doing this" posts. It's a foregone conclusion. We're all crazy in our own little ways. I just choose to blog about it.

All 400 of us share one same personality trait: We're all goal oriented, some to the point of obsession. The magic number is called a PR, a personal record, and each one of us is there because we're determined to beat it.

The PR could be a goal distance, for many first timers it's simply to run as far as you can, to the marathon or half marathon point. That was my ambition my first season of MIT, training for Cleveland. 

But once you complete that distance, you now have a time to beat. Some simply want to beat their time, others set a new goal time. I ran a 4:32 in Cleveland, and sought to run Columbus in 4:20. That was the number that was burned into my head in my second season of MIT. I smashed through that goal, running Columbus in 4:13.

Climbing hills

If there's one thing I've learned from the Mohican race Saturday, it's that if I want to keep doing this insane trail running stuff I've got to run more hills. 

I've been pretty good about running them once a week on the treadmill, but when it comes to picking a route for my longer runs I'm all about the flatness.

This is what I did today, stepping it up a bit. The last four weeks I was doing the same, one grade down on all.

1 mile @ 6 speed and 5 incline

2 x 1/2 mile @ 5.5 speed and 7 incline

4 x 1/4 mile @ 5 speed and 9 incline

Walking .1 to .25 miles in between. 

Usually I finish in just under an hour, and it burns a ton of calories. The intervals also help break up the prolonged agony I've come to equate with running on the treadmill.

I've been doing some reading though, and Runner's World suggests more of a rolling hill approach, so maybe I'll try that out next week. This article also has some interesting tips on form.

I really need to make it a point to find more routes around here with a hill or two, most importantly so I can practice running down as well. Horns Hill is two miles from my apartment, though I don't know if I'm that crazy. Also I've gotten a few tips from people in Granville. I hear the Denison campus is a doozy, and probably safer to run at night too, which will become a factor very soon.