And we all have one choice every morning. Wake up and chase down those dreams or go back to sleep and keep on dreaming. It all comes down to the little choices we make day after day
You can see which choice I made today!
My #workoutwednesday went like: 📌Coffee and a Maurten 100 gel 📌10’ dynamic warm up (bands & drills) 📌15’ up, 1x 1200m @8:41, then 4x 400m @8:23/:26/:27/:19, then 10’ down
The planHow it went 😊
Stride and cadence felt super strong. The paces today were humbling as I used to be much quicker, but with almost 2 years of injuries and no dedicated speed work I know this is a good starting point. Let’s goooo!
How often do you really stop and take the time to think about yourself, who you are at this moment and where you’d like to go? I know I don’t often do that, but way back in the day when I was an undergrad college student I did. One of our assignments was setting 5 and 10 year professional goals.
I randomly came across those goals I’d listed about 10 years later. Surprisingly I met every single one of the goals I’d laid out for myself! I hadn’t thought about that assignment since I turned it in,done and dusted, all those years ago. But I wonder… did that exercise unknowingly set me up for success??
Fast forward to now, where I think more about athletic and fitness goals. So, when I received a prompt from Honey Stinger to complete a couple goal setting activities at the beginning of this year, I figured I’d give it a go!
‘Understanding yourself’ worksheet
So, let’s see where I end up at the end of 2023. Will I meet and/or exceed these goals? I’d certainly like to think so! And, I’ve been back to running, building that base for a successful season ahead. Week 2 and feeling strong…
Track Tuesday. It’s a thing. I mean, certainly you can run a track workout any day of the week, but #trackTuesday just has a special ring to it! So, I like to partake as much as possible.
But, then there are mom responsibilities and work and all the other things that try to push my workouts aside. Try as they might, I always remember what my grandma would say. “If there’s a will, there’s a way!”. So, I’m working on making these mornings (or evenings) happen.
Speed work is my absolute favorite of all running workouts! Short intervals, such as 200 or 400 meter repeats really help keep the leg turnover strong and boost our VO2 max. There are many ways to incorporate this into your running, and you don’t even have to use a track if you can program your watch for the distance or have a way to measure out those splits. For me, the track helps me focus, and I don’t have to worry about cars, curbs, or other people so much.
My track at sunrise 😍
I’ve been building back the speed workouts lately after a hiatus of long (read: slow) distance triathlon training last year. I started with 4x 400, then 5x 400; today’s workout is listed below:
1 mile easy pace up w/ dynamic drills 6x 400m with 1’ jog in between sets 1 mile easy cool down
Speed, much like everything else, is a work in progress. My goal was to hit a 7:40 pace each interval, and I managed to go a little faster than planned at 7:33/:30/:21/:17/:26/:19. The most important part here is that I did not slow down on each interval – I actually picked up speed on all but #5. This tells me I was ok going faster than the my planned effort. If I had gotten progressively slower, or needed longer rest breaks in between, then the effort would’ve been too intense.
I’ve been working on a speed block for about the last 8 weeks. I really don’t want this to come to an end! I have some mid- and long-distance events planned later this year, but I plan to keep my track Tuesday workouts as long a I can. Consistency over time is the key to anything we do. My 5k times are gradually dropping, and while they are not quite back to where they were in years past, I am hopeful for the future!
1st place AG finisher Most recent 5k time. A 16 sec/mile drop since February with limited speed work due to a hilly half marathon in March and a trail half at the beginning of April.
“The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.” – Sir Alexander Fleming
In other words – get your mind right, and good things (words, actions, changes) will follow. I set my mind on #tracktuesday yesterday and made it happen this morning!
The workout called for some glute activation moves, a 10 minute warm up jog + dynamic stretching, then 4x 400m with 1 min recovery. I was able to just let loose and hit paces of 7:47/:39/:28/:28. Now these aren’t fast by many standards, but I’ll take it. It’s faster than I’ve been able to go as of late, and with 2 years of endurance training under my belt I have a need for speed!
Look at that ball of fire in the sky!
The cool down jog at the end brought more of that glorious sunrise into view. What an amazing way to start the day! Winter has been pretty gloomy and my body has been craving the sun and serotonin for weeks now. Plus, it feels really nice to have a little comfortable pep in my step again. So thankful for this opportunity!
Determined to Tri AND Run 