Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Wednesday Workout Update

I have had the best time running lately!  I think the reason is two-fold - first, doing a mile walk for a warm up before each run has meant that I don't spend the first mile plus in pain.  Something as simple as that has meant a world of change and I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure it out.

The other reason why running has been so good is that I'm back to running with my original running buddy, Jenny, during the week.  There is just something about her that I mesh so well with...now, I love to run with my friends, and am always happy to have someone next to me - but with Jenny, there's a difference.  I don't know if it's partly because we used to do those hard workouts together back in the day, and because of that we know how much each other is capable of doing and therefore we can push each other a bit more, or that our strides are the same and we fall into an easy cadence when we run, but when it's good, it's very, very good.  And lately, we've been good.  No - we've been great.  We do our warm up walk, and then get down to business. 

Last Thursday, we ran our first mile super fast - we finished it, with walking every other minute, in 14:03.  We decided to go for a second mile - since we started running together again (just a few weeks ago), the most we'd done was 1.5 miles.  We ended up finishing that second mile in 13:35 - again, with half of that walking!  I have to say, we were not able to talk while we ran, and we were barely able to get in a few words during the walks...this was the hardest I've pushed myself to run in a long time - and it felt great!

On Saturday, I ran with Amy and Julia - we did three miles on a humid, 70 degree morning.  We set off and right away I felt great, so I pushed the speed a little.  I'm not the one who usually does this - in fact, I'm usually the one lagging behind!  We did our 1:1 intervals, and at one point Amy remarked that I was running fast...yeah, but it's been so long since I've been in the groove, I feel like I have to take advantage of it.  We made it through all three miles, and the last mile was the fastest of the three!  Now, I couldn't have kept that up for much longer, but still, it was exhilarating to have another awesome run.

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Yesterday, Jenny and I had another great run that ended in massive amounts of laughter.  You see, as we finished our cool-down walk, we came across a budding rapper's song, which, once we realized it was a song and not actually a list for a fast food run, I rapped aloud to Jenny.  I believe the line: "forizzle my nizzle, extra salt on da frizzle" was what did us both in, although then entire song was golden.  Here's a picture, in case you are feeling the need to rap:
 "Dr. Pepper my brutha, another for your mother" - love it!

20 comments:

  1. So nice to see your joy in running restored. I think its times like you describe that keep us coming back to our running even on days when the going gets hard. Keep having fun with it just be careful to not over do in your zealousness we don't need/want another injury. I really enjoyed your post today:)

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    1. Thanks, Susan. And yeah, I am going to not push it every run, no matter how good it feels, just in case.

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  2. Having fun while running is 'da bomb' (in keeping with your rap song!)

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  3. Hahahaha, Dr. Pepper my brutha, another for your mother. That's so awesome.

    So glad to hear you're having such a good time running lately! It can be so fun when you're in a good groove! I'm always the one lagging behind in my running club (we call it "bringing up the rear"), so it surprises me when I actually want us to go faster every now and then too.

    And I always walk at least a 1/4 mile to warm-up - my trainer gave me that advice ages ago when I was constantly getting shin splints. It's simple, but so easy to just ignore it sometimes. But it definitely makes a difference on injury prevention!

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    1. I am definitely going to encourage the walking warm up to our runners this season in running club. Who knew??!

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  4. Glad to hear you are enjoying your runs.
    OMG that rap is just hilarious! You never know you might hear that one on the radio someday and you will have the original lyrics!! LOL!!

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    1. Oooh, I will have to file the lyrics away, just in case this song does become the next big hit!

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  5. This post makes me so happy, it's so great to read that your runs are going great. We both know there have been rough runs for you (and me) in the past so it's so great to read that at this moment it's going great. This is why we love running right?

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    1. Thanks, Fran - it's nice to finally share the good running times! :)

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  6. Its so great to hear you so enthusiastic about your exercise! You and Jenny fit together like peas and carrots : )

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  7. That note sounds like a joke rap I would be making LOL! I hope it was meant to be funny and someone wasn't really serious about it :D

    So glad your running is enjoyable and pain free to you again. Hooray!

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    1. I wonder if it was a high schooler who wrote it...I can kinda see them performing it at talent night and getting some good laughs!

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  8. Glad your running groove is coming back Shelley! I am going to do the interval run next time I run and see what my mile time is - I love that idea and never remember about it until I read your blog!

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  9. I just came across your blog, your post made me smile! Running is one thing, but to really enjoy it like you mentioned is an even greater thing:) So awesome!

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  10. This kid will probably be making a billion dollars by the time he or she is 21. I'll bet that paper will be worth a minor fortune on ebay. :)

    Great news on the running! Exercise isn't so hard when it brings you joy.

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  11. OMGOSH you KNOW I love love love the rap.

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  12. Running is stupid. The lows are really low and the highs are SO FANTASTIC. Glad you're in the groove!

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