Yasso 800s

Tonight is Yasso 800s again. This time I have to do 5 of them. I am kind of looking forward to them. I decided to do these with a 1% incline on the treadmill to make up for wind resistance. I ALSO decided to pick up the pace a smidge, based on my last few runs, which have been at sub 10:00 paces. I would be so pumped if I could run a marathon at a 4:22. I think I can do it. And I might as well start training that way now, right?

Last night, Bill and I stuck to our goal of maintaining a recovery pace. It was difficult to do at first, and I kept wanting to speed up. I felt like I was just trudging along (which is funny, because that used to be my pace not all that long ago). I could definitely tell the difference though, because on the short and middle runs I usually hold a conversation with Bill. Usually , I can feel myself taking deeper breaths while I am doing this. But last night I talked the whole time and it was almost as if I wasn't running.

It was nice, because I just felt like it was a nice opportunity to shake out my legs and warm up my muscles a little bit (which I guess is the point of an SRR). Then I went home and did an arm weight workout in front of "The Biggest Loser." I think Bill thinks that it's funny that I do this every week during the show. But I asked him "How could you watch that show and NOT feel like you have to do something?" Besides, we all know that strong arms make you run faster. :)

Randomness

You would think that in one of the biggest cities in the world, that there would be no way that you would run into anyone that you know, unless you had made plans.

I was walking into work today when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Jill, who was one of my teammates on Team CdLS in the Chicago Marathon. She is only here for 2 days and we ran into each other! I think it also confused her because when I ran Chicago everyone knew I was from Cincinnati. I just thought that was totally random!

Tonight I have a SRR of 20-30 minutes. Now usually, since this is only a 20 minute run AND I'm running with Bill, who unintentionally makes me pick up the pace, I end up running this faster than most of my other runs. Usually I clock about a 9 minute mile. But tonight I am going to really concentrate on keeping it in the 10:30 pace area.

I read this article in this month's issue of Runner's World that said that a common mistake that runners make is running too fast on their SRRs. It said that by doing that, you are actually fatiguing your body. Your body needs the rest of the recovery runs, so you should take them at a recovery pace. I think it is going to be difficult to do this. I have a very hard time varying my pace. It's easier for me to go faster than it is for me to go slower, so we'll see. I'm going to map out an exact route that goes with my slower pace so that I can stick to it.