Will Run for Marylou’s

Hi, friends! 😎

I woke up bright and early to beat the heat and get my run in first thing this morning, but, even still, the heat and humidity totally kicked my butt. I’m just not a warm weather runner. My legs felt like lead and I huffed and puffed for the first couple of miles of my 5.25-mile run.

Eventually, I found my stride and picked up the pace a little bit. Before I knew it, I was running my final mile, so I really pushed it then. My goal for today’s run was negative splits. Success!

• Mile 1: 9:07
• Mile 2: 8:59
• Mile 3: 8:50
• Mile 4: 8:48
• Mile 5: 8:38

Total: 46:27 (8:50)

The best part about this morning’s run was that it finished at Marylou’s. This little tactic made my super hot and humid run so much more enjoyable for me.

Before I left the house, I cut a deal with Mal. If he picked me up from Marylou’s after my run, I’d buy him an iced coffee. I texted him when I finished, so he and Murphy picked me up a few minutes later. Great plan.

I ordered an Almond Joy iced coffee for me and a Girl Scout Cookie for Mal.

Will run for iced coffee!!

Breakfast

After my run, Mal whipped up an egg and cheese sandwich for me. I ate it along with my Marylou’s iced coffee. (Before heading out for my run, I ate a piece of toast with almond butter.)

Three Questions Thursday

Here’s the next edition of Three Questions Thursday! Keep those questions coming!

Your running times are awesome for someone who was keeping the porcelain throne company for most of last week. Your running has improved so much in the last year, right? Any secrets?

Yep, my times have continued to improve since I started taking running more “seriously” about a year ago. I’m definitely not an expert when it comes to running””I’m still trying to figure out how to get faster myself””but I can tell you what seems to be working for me.

• Consistency: Before registering to run a marathon with Team In Training, I wasn’t a very consistent runner. I’d run once or twice a week, but I never really had a game plan. Nowadays, I’m almost always training for a race, so I try to run more often (2-4 times a week), which seems to help increase my overall stamina and speed.
• Speedwork: I’m still getting my feet wet with speedwork, but I definitely notice that I’m getting faster because of it. My coach at the Boston Running Center is setting me up with individualized speed workouts, but Runner’s World SmartCoach is a great tool for training programs that incorporate speedwork.
• Not being such a wuss: Running is not easy and it’s often uncomfortable, so realizing this has helped me push myself through the “pain” to get faster.

What happened to your workout page on your blog? Are you not tracking your workouts anymore?

I am, but I’m using DailyMile to track my workouts now. I found it a little redundant to add my workouts to DailyMile and then to my blog, so now you can find all of my workouts on my new Training page under Fitness on CNC.

I know you you said you don’t have the Bridal Bootcamp workout from your wedding anymore, but would you consider putting together something like that for your readers? I know I would find it helpful!

It’s funny you ask because I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now!

I plan to start a new strength training routine next week to coincide with my training for the New York City Marathon, so I figured you guys might want to see the workouts that I’m doing. I lost a lot of my upper body (and overall) strength when I trained for Arizona, so I don’t want that to happen again. My plan is to strength train three times each week: one Body Pump class + two upper body/full body workouts, which should take about 20-30 minutes each. I’ll post them on CNC as I do them, so, hopefully, they’ll help motivate you to pump some iron too! Muscles are sexy, people!

With that said, look for a strength training series called “Carrots ”˜N’ Weights” next week on CNC! (Thanks for the name idea, Erin!)

Question of the Day

How much strength training do you do each week? If you don’t  regularly strength train, why not?

P.S. Local readers: Be sure to enter my Meals4Meals giveaway!