Training, Racing, Thank you! (TTT)

TRAINING- I am tired of being stagnant, so I decided I want to actually put forth some effort to get faster in the half distance. I made sure to leave Ohio on Monday morning with enough time to make it back to Nashville for my Monday night Fleet feet group. I wanted to test out my virattas on the road for the first time, as well as go past the 4 mile distance to see how my legs felt. I never pushed myself as I just wanted to see what 'came natural' and I'm super pleased with the results- mile 1 was slowish as its uphill, 2 and 3 were crazy fast without realizing it because I was running with fast individuals (one of the girls ran a 18:23 5k over weekend, geez), and rest of run was my 'normal pace'. I had no idea my last .63 was 6:59 pace... not sure where that came from!

I will say that my calves were FEELING it the next day. Luckily it was workout wednesday at work so I rocked compression socks all day long... didn't want to take them off at gym, so I got a lot of weird stares by my outfit of choice...

At the gym I decided to finally do some speedwork I keep talking about ;)   It was cold last night so I opted for treadmill. According to my VO2 max I should be doing mile repeats at 7:28 pace... a bit fast if i were running on road, but when you're tall, its easier to go faster on a treadmill by adjusting your stride to hit the belt comfortably.
 1 mile warm up at 8:49
2 min rest
1 mile at 7:30
2 min rest
1 mile at 7:19
2 min rest
1 mile at 7:08
cool down.

Surprisingly I like doing repeats on a treadmill because it breaks up the monotony. If I do mile repeats on TM next week, I think I'll still just do 3, but I'll have to start out at faster pace because 7:30 and 7:19 although got me sweating, they were not as challenging as repeats are supposed to be....  now attempting them on the road, COMPLETELY different story.

RACING-Tomorrow I leave for Maine / NH double header with B. I was worried it might be freezing in that part of the country this time of year, but ME will be 40s and NH will be 55- BEAUTIFUL. B and I don't have a lot of the same exact skirts to be matchy matchy, so instead we'll be patterned matchy matchy.
 Saturday's race we'll be rocking different versions of plaid (both with black tops)

Lisa Purple, B Red

And since Sunday will be SUNNY and warm, we wanted to be a little more BRIGHT and rock some 'preppy plaid'

Lisa Pink, Becca Blue (i had her choose b/n pixels or argyle) 

In the spirit of doubles, a big THANK YOU to Christine at Dream BIG Runner -  Last Friday I mentioned that my Virginia plans fell through and I couldn't find a decent race to fill in the gap so I opted for St. Michael's Running Festival in MD instead. She pointed out there is the Historic Half (which is part of the whole Marine Corp Marathon enterprise) the day after MD and It's about 1 hr and 45 from Baltimore airport. I got approval from P since he's coming along for the trip and now I'll be doing BOTH --- HELLLLLLOOOOOOOO savings. So excited to meet you Christine :) 

THANK YOU- A big thanks to everyone who sent me messages about my dad as well as failing my test. Dad is great and will have surgery this summer and he knows how to manage his discs until then. I have a friend who's dad had the same back surgery and everything went off without a hitch, so we're thinking the same will happen for mine.

For my certification test, I did find out from my company that they will cover up to 2 retakes for my CEBS examination, so I have until June 30 to study my butt off and do better... music to my ears. 

Lastly, Congrats to Rachel at Run 50 States for winning Foam Fest 5k giveaway! 

Email me at Lisarun2@gmail.com and I will give you the details!