Todays Workouts- AM- 9 miles total including 5 miles at tempo pace. PM- 4 miles easy on the treadmill (not done yet)

This morning I rolled out of bed at 4:50 am and sleep walked to my kitchen. I know this is nothing to brag about. Plenty of my readers and non-readers wake up earlier than this on a daily basis but it’s been a rough transition for me. I know it will get easier but this past week I feel absolutely awful waking up just an hour earlier even though I go to bed earlier. My head is in a deep fog and easy pace seems like a sprint. Advice? I used to wake up at 6 am with my kids, make a leisurely breakfast with them, rush to the bus stop because no matter what we are always 2 minute behind schedule, then walk home before lacing up my running shoes at 8:15 every weekday morning. Now I wake up looking like The Walking Dead and feel even worse. So far I’ve only had easy paced runs this early (meaning I would put my coffee in the treadmill cup holder) but today was the real deal…a tempo. No half sleep running allowed.

Despite my obscene grogginess the tempo went well. The trick is I have to start out the warm up very slow, as in a good 90 seconds slower than the slow range of my easy pace. After that warm up I switched to my lighter Nike Flyknit Trainers and started at 6:11 pace for the first half mile to ease into it and averaged 6:03 for the entire 5 miles. Our treadmill room is in an old part of an old house and feels like a sauna. I have a small fan set up and I open up the sliding glass door (super creepy when it’s still dark out, but worth it) but the heat is thick and I’m covered in sweat before the warm up is complete. I am hoping the heat negates any speedy difference the treadmill makes as opposed to running outside. Who knows though? Outside I have traffic to contend with, bikes, even aggressive ducks whereas on the treadmill I can just cruise. It is easier physically but tougher mentally. I am staring at a wall for 30 minutes of hard running. Boring after the first 30 seconds.

Because it is a race week I only had one other tough workout assigned. It was done on Monday with some friends Dennis, David, and Thomas. I just want to thank them and tell you all to go “like” Dennis’s Coaching facebook page here DW Endurance Project because they have been so great pacing me and helping through some tough Coach Mark Hadley assigned workouts when really they could have just been doing their own thing, not my workout. Coach Hadley had me run 8 X 800′s with a 2 minute jog recovery. I purposely did not bring a watch and I told Dennis the goal range I wanted to run (2:44-2:48) and just stuck as close as I could to his heels the entire time. Thomas and David were so sweet and gave me the inside lane every time. All I had to do was focus on my form, breathing, and “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.” It was hot, muggy, humid and the two minute recovery jogs felt like 10 seconds. I never let myself wonder what pace we were at and I always made sure I was not running out of control. On the final interval the boys did the first lap then took off. Dennis was a good 15-20 seconds in front of me when we finished and I thought I blew the workout. He was so far ahead that I felt as though I was running backwards. You never want your last interval to be the slowest. You always want your body to end a workout fast. When Dennis told me my last 800 was a 2:36 I almost fell over. That’s really fast for my marathoning legs! I averaged 2:40 for the set of 800′s and my cool down was ridiculously slow but I had a smile on my face. I’ve been working so hard daily and twice daily that it’s nice to see some improvement. I think this Summer of Speed thing is making progress.

Running watchless is my new favorite. It allows me to run in the moment, focus, and not be a slave to the numbers. I remember how much I love running as opposed to worrying if I’m fast or slow or exactly at a certain mileage. Maybe my Garmin being on its last breath of life is a good thing?

The rest of the week is medium and short distance runs until Sundays 5K. It should be hot but the course is a flat one. I am hoping for a big PR and been working hard towards that goal so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can be a big girl, suck up the pain, and get after it. I have not run a sub 18 minute 5K in ages so it’s time to quit putting that off.

Also, I am grateful to say that Mizuno Running included me as one of the runners asked to test-run their newest shoe the Wave Sayonara It will be available for sale in stores July 5th and after I give it quite a few good test runs I’ll write you my honest feedback. I’ve been Nike Pegasus loyal for years (tried Brooks briefly last year but they didn’t fit my narrow feet well) so we will see if Mizuno is able to drag me away from my old favorite. I am very excited to give them a run!

As always, thanks for reading and have a great week all!