I have conquered the treadmill!

I have never really enjoyed the treamill. The reasons I love running are to be outside, be with friends, etc. I only run on the treadmill when I have to. Most of the time I get bored and don't want to finish a planned workout.

So, when Sarah agreed to do our 15 mile run on the treadmill, I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to complete it. My friend Amy let me borrow her IPOD to watch a movie. I set the treadmill to 8:48 pace and turned on the movie. I wore my Garmin so that I could keep track of my heart rate. I started with the movie King Arthur. I had a hard time focusing, so I switched to Brother Bear! Surprisingly the movie had a good music soundtrack and I really enjoyed it. About 10 minutes from the end, the battery died. At this point Sarah's back was hurting a little so I thought we wouldn't do the whole workout. I didn't have music, so I just tried to keep focusing and get as much in as I could. When I got to mile 12, Sarah told me she had her mp3 player. It was amazing how that pumped me up!! I actually did finish 15 miles and could have kept going.

So, now I know I can run on a treadmill! I am grateful Sarah was willing to do this with me. My heart rate was in the 170-180's until mile 11 when it hit 190, then it stayed in the low 190's until the last mile.

So, hopefully the next time we do this workout it will be outside and my heart rate will be lower. :-)
My trial week was a success. I am happy with how it went. Now I need to stay consistent with my mileage so I can do better in one month.

15 miles on a treadmill-really?

Okay, I am writing this down so I am accountable. There is still snow on the ground and I am a wimp. So, tomorrow's 15 miler will be in 4 1/2 hours on a treadmill. Wish me luck. Oh, and the pace is 8:48- woah!! I will report back!

I did it!

So, trial workout #2 was a success! It is snowing here in Oregon, so I took the day off yesterday and decided to try the second workout today. This one gives me the choice of running 3 miles in 22:45 (7:35 pace), 5 miles in 39:10 (7:50 pace) or 8 miles in 64:40 (8:05 pace). I was nervous because that first run didn't go how I wanted. I decided to do the 3 mile run because I didn't have much time. So, I did a mile warmup at 11 minute pace, just trying to ease into it. I then put a magazine over the screen so I couldn't see the miles slowly tick by. I just listened to my music and waited one or two songs to check where my mileage was. As soon as it hit a mile I would push lap on my Garmin, so I would have heart rate info. My first mile was 7:31, my second mile was 7:37 and my third mile was 7:34- ave pace 7:34, woo hoo!!! The best news is that my heart rate did pretty well, compared to Monday. On Monday my heart rate was as 205 before the end of the first mile. This one the first mile ave was 186, the second was 194, 202. It was tough, but I am so excited that I can do it!! I need to stay consistent with my running for these next few weeks.
The last workout is to run 15-20 miles at 8:48 pace and with the weather I just don't think this is going to happen. Hopefully when I get back in town the weather will be better to try this.

A little disappointing

So, my good friend Ed is going to be training for the Newport Marathon using the Runner's World "First" training plan. He showed my some of the information. There is a specific training plan for qualifying for Boston, which of course I was interested in. I was intrigued because of this sentence:

For women 18 to 34, you must run 3:40 to BQ (I knew that, of course!)
Qualifying for Boston is realistic:

If you can:

Run a 5kin 22:40 (check! My best 5k is 22:38)
Run a 10k in 47:25 (Pretty close to check- my official time was 47:59, but we started after everyone else and my watch said 47:30 for the 10k distance)
Run a half-marathon in 1:45:00 (Not check- my last half marathon was in 2006 and it was a 1:49. Now I wish I would have run a half marathon this past summer to see where I was at. It says the half marathon is the best indicator.

So, then it lists the workouts that you need to be able to do to follow their training plan. So, I wanted to try them out. I called up Sarah and asked her if she wanted to try this with me.

Today's workout: mile repeats at 7:02 per mile pace, with a 400m recovery jog between. I knew it would be tough, but I was hoping I would be pleasantly surprised. Well, I wasn't. I did a 20 minute warmup and then pushed the treadmill up to 8.5 mph (7:03 pace.) My heart rate went to 195 pretty quickly. It stayed there for a little while but then went to 205. I stayed there for a little bit, but got nervous. My max heart rate is about 212, so this was getting really close. I decided to come down a little to 8.3 mph and I finished the mile in about 7:15. I tried not to get too discouraged for the next 2 miles. I did my recovery 1/4 mile and the good news is my heart rate came down pretty well. So, I started again. I didn't make it very far. By this time, my legs were shot and so was my confidence. I kept playing with the speed, overall I ran it in about 7:30. (I am guessing.) For the last mile I was just trying to hang on. It was probably closer to an 8 minute mile. I then did my cool down and thought about the workout.

I decided not to be discouraged because I still have 8 weeks until I start the training, if I use this training. I am going to do the same workout in a month and see if it goes better. I thought about my running over the last few months and it has been sporadic at best, and definitely no speedwork. For Wednesday's workout I am going to use the paces that are used for the 10k time I had on Thanksgiving. Then I can work up to the faster pace.

So, I am still looking into different training plans. The good news for Sarah is that she rocked the test! She was able to run all 3 miles at that pace. I am very excited for her.

It's getting closer...

The wheels are turning, and I am truly ready to start thinking about trying to qualify for Boston. Now, the question is, what program to follow? I am going to spend some time(not too much time, hopefully!) looking over different schedules to try to find the right one for me. I am really happy with the Hal Higdon schedule I followed for Salt Lake, but I have been reading about other ones that have worked for other BQ-hopefuls!

The Newport Marathon is 24 weeks away. That sounds like a long time, but it really is not. I have a long way to go!