It's interesting the stuff that motivates me to go for my runs. I had a dip in motivation to get out there on Monday morning this week, the new school plus kindy run takes more time and it was tempting to just head on home.
It made me realise that it's kind of perverse what gets me out there. All I had to think about is how I'd feel after the run is finished, and off I went.
Of note this week is that after my long run on Wednesday I decided to switch from the couch to 5km program I was following to one of the Garmin Coach half marathon training programs.
While I'm progressing well with the c25k, I'm a little dissatisfied with only doing run/walk intervals as my only training. I'm sure that if I'm to run 21.1km in July, I need to mix it up and do speed drills, work on cadence, and so on. Just run/walking is not going to get me there.
I've picked Coach Jeff Galloway since he does use a run/walk method as the basis of his training, so it's not a massive change from what I've been doing. He is also the only coach who offers just three workouts per week, which suits me since I only have three days during the week on which I can run. Plus it means if I miss a workout during the week, there's a chance of making it up on the weekend.
I set my goal in the Garmin app for a half marathon in July, with a time goal of 2 hours 40 minutes. It's the longest time goal you can set within the program and it looks achievable but challenging for me.
Something that clicked for me this week as I increase my mileage is to sloowww down... Which sounds paradoxical when I'm talking about setting a time goal for my race.
But, as I wrote last week, comparison can get me in a low mood (see also lack of motivation above). I need to find the pace that is comfortable for me right now, not what I think I should be doing. Slowing down, and not caring what my watch tells me about my pace, has made such a difference. I can run comfortably for five minutes. I could definitely run for longer than that. It was an exciting realisation.
Monday
5km along local walkway. Average pace 7:48/km.
Wednesday
"Long" run. I put long in inverted commas because for now "long" means only 5.69km.
Friday
Lake walk with friend. A very fast walking friend!! It was a truly stunning location (see photo at the top of this post), which made the sweaty toil easier to take and I'll definitely be back there for some runs.
Saturday
Quick benchmark run in the mid-afternoon, to set up the Garmin half-marathon program. Not my most brilliant idea running at that time of day, but I had to squeeze it into a busy day and even in the boiling sun I still managed to shave about 30 seconds/km off my pace from the last benchmark run I completed only two weeks ago. Definitely happy with that.
My next run is on Monday, and it's the first workout in my new Garmin program. I should be happy because, guess what, it's cadence drills and hill repeats! I'm a little nervous but also looking forward to the challenge...
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