Do you ever have too many goals for yourself when it comes to your fitness?? I don't think its a bad thing to have too many goals, but sometimes they conflict with eachother and you have to choose what takes priority.
I have 4 fitness-related goals that I want for myself and what will help get me there:
I want to be fast. (speedwork / hill work )
I want to be stronger. (weight training / bootcamp maybe some hill work )
I want to be able to build up mileage base so I can run a marathon (MORE miles)
I want to trim down and tone up (weight training / boot camp... nutrition, obviously )Me being the stubborn individual that I am, have been trying to do all 4, while still racing, but yet none of the areas gets enough attention to be GREAT, just enough to get by. When I took a minute to really think about what I want deep down, its to be fast--- however my actions are not congruent with my ultimate goal
Let me explain.....
I've been going to bootcamp more to get stronger and toned, but then my mileage suffers and I end up running only 2-3x week. I've been adding longer mileage on the weekend, but then I'm so sore I have to take more days off, thus again running 2-3x week. Because I'm only running 2-3x week I want my runs to be longer, so therefore I don't focus on 'speed work' --- ultimately how am I going to get faster if I don't do speedwork?!?!? DUH LISA.
I've been going to bootcamp more to get stronger and toned, but then my mileage suffers and I end up running only 2-3x week. I've been adding longer mileage on the weekend, but then I'm so sore I have to take more days off, thus again running 2-3x week. Because I'm only running 2-3x week I want my runs to be longer, so therefore I don't focus on 'speed work' --- ultimately how am I going to get faster if I don't do speedwork?!?!? DUH LISA.
I've been eyeballing a certain LOVELY pair of Asics gel noosa for quite some time now, and I was kindly informed that in order to 'pull these off' I need to earn them- aka pull a fast time for a half marathon race... wasn't sure if I was ready to announce the time, but its now or never- 1:45:59 = 8:08/pace
Whew, feel better getting that off my chest. Everywhere you look for them, the standard price is $120, but I just so happened to check out Academy Sports this weekend and as you can see, $20 cheaper, SCORE!
AFTER I run my half in the 1:45s, however long that may take, I need to have my gait tested to see if Asics will work for my stride- the gel noosas are a racing shoe, so probably could only use for speed work or shorter runs, but hey, I'll look good doing it.
Yesterday I had a lot of built up frustration that I needed to release. I started out with my usual 5 mile route after work- a minute or two into the run I was 'feeling it' so I decided to pick up the pace and do mile repeats with 30 sec of walking in between (ok so maybe some of them turned into 45 sec walking)
Mile 1: 6:56
Mile 2: 7:10
Mile 3: 7:08
Mile 4: 6:52
.30 mile walking / getting my breathing straight type of cool down.
By breaking my run into 4 parts, it was much easier to stay focused and concentrate on 1 mile at a time.
Aside from feeling accomplished for finally doing speedwork, I have to say that even thought it was completely last minute, it was successful. Realistically, I think I would have to WORK REALLY HARD to pull these times off again, I guess it shows what you can accomplish when you're pissed off ;)
During my 'cool down', I had a fellow runner that I had passed during my last mile, catch back up to me and walked with me for a minute. He asked if Adidas was one of my sponsors--- (nevermind the fact that I was wearing Nike shorts and Saucony shoes) apparently running relatively fast, drenched in sweat, and looking focused warrants "looking bad ass enough to have a sponsor"
During my 'cool down', I had a fellow runner that I had passed during my last mile, catch back up to me and walked with me for a minute. He asked if Adidas was one of my sponsors--- (nevermind the fact that I was wearing Nike shorts and Saucony shoes) apparently running relatively fast, drenched in sweat, and looking focused warrants "looking bad ass enough to have a sponsor"
So.... Adidas, if you come across my blog... I'll gladly have you as my sponsor!!!
My goal is to try to do speedwork once a week, however, with the weather now sticking around to the 80s and daylights savings time making it hotter later in the day, I don't forsee many mile repeats as my speed work. Bring on the shorter distances!
Do you do speedwork?
I am so bad at it. In the last 1.5 years, excluding yesterday, I have done 5 speed work sessions. 1 was suicide drills with some co-workers, 1 day of 400 repeats, and 3 treadmill runs where I did 30 sec bursts of all out max effort (12.0mph) The last run I vomitted on, so haven't picked that back up.
What is your preferred way to get it done?
Since I don't do it often, guess I can't really have a preferred? I know it would motivate me more if someone was doing it with me for accountability purposes, AND I would really like to start going to a track
