Friday night I was hoping to get a 6 mile run in, but Robert got home later than expected so I didn’t have time for that many miles. I had about 30 minutes to run so I set a goal of 3 miles for myself, while pushing Gus in the stroller. I’ve been doing my evening stroller runs at around a 10:15-10:30 pace, so I knew I would have to kick it up a notch to get 3 miles in 30 minutes. I wore my Garmin and this is what happened:
Mile 1: 9:22
Mile 2: 9:30
Mile 3: 9:47
This made me happy because I accomplished my goal and if I had had more time I could have maintained that pace for a few more miles for sure. It left me thinking about a couple of things:
1) With each mile, my pace slowed. Annoying. I would like to be able to either keep a steady pace throughout my run, or increase my speed with each mile. I know I can do this – I just need to pay better attention and be mindful of this.
2) I think that I am at the point postpartum where I am ready to begin pushing myself. I know I am capable of pushing the stroller at faster than a 10 minute pace on a regular basis.
3) The pace I have been running without the stroller is no faster than with! Silliness. I believe I can and should be moving faster when I am not pushing the stroller, right!?
Yesterday morning I met my buddies for a 10-12 mile run. We ran the beautiful trails in my town (Reston) and covered 12.75 miles. It was a GREAT run. I held a steady pace averaging about 10:15. This is a hilly route and some miles were closer to 11 minute pace while others were at a 9 minute pace, but all in all I feel really great about the run. I was just as strong as all my buddies which made me happy.
Mile 1: 9:22
Mile 2: 9:30
Mile 3: 9:47
This made me happy because I accomplished my goal and if I had had more time I could have maintained that pace for a few more miles for sure. It left me thinking about a couple of things:
1) With each mile, my pace slowed. Annoying. I would like to be able to either keep a steady pace throughout my run, or increase my speed with each mile. I know I can do this – I just need to pay better attention and be mindful of this.
2) I think that I am at the point postpartum where I am ready to begin pushing myself. I know I am capable of pushing the stroller at faster than a 10 minute pace on a regular basis.
3) The pace I have been running without the stroller is no faster than with! Silliness. I believe I can and should be moving faster when I am not pushing the stroller, right!?
Yesterday morning I met my buddies for a 10-12 mile run. We ran the beautiful trails in my town (Reston) and covered 12.75 miles. It was a GREAT run. I held a steady pace averaging about 10:15. This is a hilly route and some miles were closer to 11 minute pace while others were at a 9 minute pace, but all in all I feel really great about the run. I was just as strong as all my buddies which made me happy.
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| trails of Reston out my back door |
Last week my total mileage was 24.75 for the week. I am going to be gradually increasing this while keeping my weekend long run somewhere between 10-15 miles from now until June 18 when my marathon training program starts. My goal is to get my weekly mileage up to 30 miles a week as I enter into marathon training mode. And, of course, to work a bit on my speed. I want to get back to where I was pre-pregnancy, doing my easy short weekday runs around a 9 minute pace. I think this is totally possible!
I want to give a special shout out to everyone running Boston as I write this!!!!! I am sooo happy for all of you, and have had “Boston Fever” for the past week just thinking about the excitement of that race!!
