All About Running

Wednesday night, I got to be an athlete training with a team again! And boy was it fun!!

For a while now, I’ve been thinking about joining a running group, but I’ve never taken the time to see what is out there, make a decision, pay the money, and join. But last night I think I finally took the plunge, and I think I found what I’ve been looking for. 🙂

It was actually a counselor who suggested joining a running group so I could geek out with other runners. (I finally got some counseling for all the things stressing me out these days, but I was pretty disappointed in my counseling sessions though. I really didn’t learn anything and didn’t felt like I received any help.)

Anyway, Wednesday night I met the Skinny Raven Training Group (Skinny Raven is the local running store.) at The Dome for an indoor track workout.

We started with some light jogging then proceed to stretch and do some dynamic warm-ups. (Just like the good old days of running in college. 🙂 )

Then we completed the following track workout:

3 x 10 minute tempo runs (10 mile to half-marathon pace)

I average about 7:08 – 7:15 minutes/mile pace.

It was fun and felt so good to run fast!

I didn’t really know what to expect from my body since I haven’t been doing a lot of running recently and only a couple of speed workouts recently, but I ended up running with a couple of the top women for the first two intervals. I was feeling good on the last interval, so I took off and surged on ahead. It felt great to be one of the fastest women in the group (at least for this workout).

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The running group also got me excited for my next marathon!

I do not know for sure which marathon I will run, but I am hoping to run Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN again. I ran it two years ago and had a blast!

I normally haven’t need a race to train for, but lately I’ve been lacking a feeling of direction in my training, so I started researching training plans for a marathon early this summer. I’m excited!

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I’ve already completed my goal of reading one book a month.

I recently finished reading a book featuring the life of Dick Beardsley. Dick Beardsley is a famous person in my family because a.) he is from Minnesota and b.) because he went to the same college my parents attended—at the same time, too (a small junior college in my hometown that is actually now a prison). Both my parents and my sister have heard him speak, and when my mom went to hear him this fall, she got a signed copy of his book for me for Christmas.

I enjoy reading biographies, but I was not expecting to be so engrossed in the story! Beardsley is well-known for his lost to Alberto Salazar by 2 seconds at the very end in the 1982 Boston Marathon, but he was also a dairy farmer and addicted to pain killers, which I had no idea about.

I would highly recommend this book! I woke up at 4:45 a.m. one morning (not on purpose) excited to read the book!

(Source)

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I finally picked out a new pair of running shoes. They were much needed seeing that I’ve been running in the above pair since August. (I go through about 3 pairs of shoes a year.)

I chose the new Saucony Triumph 9 running shoes with the new 8mm heel-toe drop, which in theory is supposed to help support a more natural stride. I’m excited to try out this new design!

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We are getting dumped on with snow today. . . and then it is supposed to turn bitter cold again—> 0 – 5 degrees for the high and below zero at night. Seriously, this winter it has either been dumping snow or bitter cold. Grrrr!!

Okay, so that isn’t running-related, but it is because I’m debating if I should try running outside in the morning or go to the gym and run on the dread-mill.