Wednesday Workout Update

I am very grateful for my exercise routine during the holidays - with Jeff off work and the kids home, my normal routine is definitely off, but having my set "run days" in place, and doing them - no matter what - is helping to keep me sane and alleviate the guilt of lazing around while we watch tons of movies.

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Is it wrong that I feel like I beat Jeff the other morning, when my alarm went off and he heard the wind howling outside, said "I'm not running in this wind" and I still did?  Hah!  Wind to him is what hills are to me - we all have things we hate to deal with in running.  But the windy day was Thursday, and Erica and I run on Thursdays.  She showed up at 6:00 am and we did our normal run, in the wind.  Booyah to Jeff!  (Why yes, there *might* be a tiny bit of competitiveness between Jeff and I - and I so rarely win that I have to note it when I do!)

On Saturday morning, we met up with about 10 of our running club peeps and set out to run 5 miles.  Jeff and I were joined by Will and Amy in doing 3:1 intervals while everyone else did their own thing.  This was my first time doing intervals for a long distance (I did them when I was first getting back into running), and I really had no idea how it would go.  It was 33 degrees when we started out, and it definitely took me a while to warm up, but once we got moving, my running pace picked up.

I wore my Garmin to track the distance, but used a Gymboss for the intervals.  The Gymboss was super easy to set, and very simple to use.  I clipped to to the handle of my water bottle, which worked out great - we all could hear the beeps clearly.  We did the 5 miles in 1:08, and in looking back at my training history, I've been averaging 1:05 for a 5 mile run, so this wasn't too far off.  At this point, I'm more interested in being able to make it through a long, long run without wanting to quit at the midpoint, than I am in speed, so I'm OK with that pace.

I ran Monday morning, just doing a 2 mile loop in our neighborhood.  Jeff, Sam and I are going to run this morning, but we are waiting until the temps warm up - and by that I mean get at least close to freezing...although with the sharp north winds we're having, it will feel like the teens - BRRR!  We are going to do our long run this week on Friday morning, since we'll be traveling on Saturday.  Plans are to do 7 miles with the same 3:1 intervals - here's hoping that it goes well and my brain cooperates with running that far!