Week 4: 12 miles

Last week/this week, I shifted my running schedule from a Monday-Sunday week to a Sunday-Saturday week. So this week I had 1 less day. This happened to coincide with a "light" week that included more rest days (much needed with all the travel), so this week was low on mileage.

Mar 23: 2.5 hours of dance rehearsal for our senior musical
Mar 24: 50min moderate run - 5.4mi run in Squirrel Hill, and 2.5 hours of dance rehearsal for our senior musical
Mar 27: 6.8mi run to the Mall, coinciding with the Cherry Blossom Festival - approx 66 min. DC running is quite nice!

Next weekend is a 9miler in Kansas, and will be our longest run yet! I'm hoping for good weather and flat trails. Fingers crossed!

Week 3: 22 miles

What a crazy week! I drove back from Philly, actually had to do work for class, MATCHED!, and flew to California for whirlwind wedding planning. Eric, the overachiever he is, had a bachelor party thrown in on top of all of that! Somehow we managed to run. I've been shuffling around the training runs because of our crazy schedule, but I'm hoping to get back to the normal routine this week. Happy running!

• Mar 16: 40min conv - really this was moderate - ran 4.8mi hills in Sq Hill
• Mar 17: 8mi conv - we ran 8.8 miles through Pittsburgh! We stopped at about the 5mi mark to say hello to friends, who lived on the course and were having dinner. But otherwise we ran the whole thing, including the last 1mi uphill. A great way to keep my mind off of MATCH the following day!
• Mar 20: 40min moderate - fast-paced 4.2mi run in my family's neighborhood.
  
• Mar 21: 45min easy - same as 3/20, taken much slower.

Weeks 1 & 2

So I'm using a "beginner" training program. It calls for one moderate-pace run (I try to make these more challenging by doing lots of hills), one easy-pace run, and one long conversational run per week. The other days are cross-train days, and one rest day per week. Hence the "moderate", "easy", and "conversational" interspersed below.

Week 1 (March 1-7): It was still snowing, with those 5-foot brown ice piles everywhere, and black ice on the sidewalks. Running outside was not an option.

• Mar 2: 35min moderate - ~3.5mi on hill mode on the treadmill, max incline 5.0 and max speed 6.5. Also walked 2.5 miles to the hospital in the morning
• Mar 3: 25min elliptical, arms #1, stretch
• Mar 4: 40min easy - 3.7 at 1.0 incline on treadmill
• Mar 6: Bob (~25min) + 25min Pilates

Week 2 (March 8-14): The sun came out and the snow started to melt! It was my first time running outside in 2010 and it was glor-i-us.

• Mar 8: 6mi conversational - ~60min from Squirrel Hill to Oakland, back through Shadyside. Was incredibly proud of myself for not stopping at all, including on the big hill during the last mile.
  
• Mar 9: 40min moderate - 4.2mi hilly run through Squirrel Hill
• Mar 10: 20min Pilates + Jillian level 2
• Mar 11: 40min easy - 3.9mi run through Squirrel Hill (hillier and therefore not as "easy" as I had planned for)
• Mar 12: 30min Bob
• Mar 13: In Philly - walked a TON + danced the night away :)
• Mar 14: In Philly - 7mi conversational - ~110min up to the museum, back through Penn
  

The run in Philly was fantastic! Scenic, flat, well-paced (with a good amount of walking and a detour through the Penn Bookstore)... Running in a pack definitely makes it seem faster and funner!

I've definitely been hungrier since my weekly mileage has shot up from maybe 4mi per week to over 15. I've been trying to eat healthy at home, but going out with friends over the weekend (not to mention a food-fest in Philly) definitely negates all this hard work.

Meh. Food is good. Life is good.

Another Blog!

Welcome! And I'm asking myself the same thing: am I crazy? I started another blog? As if I keep up with the other one(s)!

But I wanted a place to keep track of my training runs without boring the crap out of the readers of my "personal" blog... although posts about running are probably more interesting than anything else I write there. Har. In any case, this is where I'll be keeping track of my training runs and mileage in my quest to complete the Pittsburgh Half Marathon on May 2, 2010.

Maybe I'll inspire one of y'all (yinz) to start training, too! If I can do it, trust me, so can you.