Push It Wednesday

I am super excited for two reasons:

1. I am officially registered to run the 'Iao Valley to the Sea Half Marathon on March 23! It will be my first race in 2013.
2. I have a training plan! I have been winging it since 12/9 and although I have been doing fine with some great mileage weeks, I love having a plan. It is a short one geared towards the half in March. You can see it HERE.

It was nice going to bed knowing how many miles I wanted to run today. It was nice knowing it was going to be Push It Wednesday and I was already dreaming up the workout I was going to run. And it was nice knowing that my plan didn't necessarily mean I needed to get all the day's miles in before being at work. That lets some of the stress off and is smart planning on my part. I would rather run two runs to get the miles than skip the miles.
Today's goal: 9 miles
As of now, I have completed 7.14 of those miles and am feeling great! I did an awesome workout that made the time of the treadmill fly by. I think I should come up with a fancy name for it but haven't yet. But if I do, I can post the workout idea on my TM Running page. Any suggestions for a name? Post your suggestions below and I may need to send the lucky soul who submits a winning name a little treat from the Rainbow State.
Essentially, the run was a run to test my current speed paces and my progress. I started with a mile warm-up at my standard easy pace of 10'00". I returned to this pace for each recovery segment. Then I increased my speed to my traditional speed pace for Yasso's and ran a mile in 8'00". I felt pretty good and strong at the end but I did tell myself once or twice I can do anything for 8 minutes. We all know that isn't completely true but you get the point. And yes, my breathing increased but I wasn't dying. I remember when I felt the very same way at the end of one Yasso - progress! I did a 0.5 mile recovery interval before doing another mile in 8'00". At the end it was a bit tougher but I was still feeling good. This marked the end of phase 1 of my run.
After running my easy pace for 0.5 miles I increased the pace to 7'47" for 0.5 miles. Okay, this was a bit tougher but in all reality, it should be. I was running now at a pace faster than I was traditionally doing for speedwork or Yasso's. Some thoughts going through my head: This is just 13 seconds faster. You only have 0.5 miles to go. And thankfully, my next 0.5 mile rest segment came. Within a minute and a half I was back to my comfort zone and breathing. Because I recovered so quickly I knew my run was still at the right level but I still dreaded the next interval. Stay in the moment. Enjoy the rest. And bang! It was time to up the pace to 7'47" again. Argh! I knew I only had 0.5 miles to go, that I just did it, but it was getting harder. I got nauseous for a nano-second but blame the darn cereal bar I ate this morning not the effort. That bar was way to sugary. 20 as in 20% done. 40. 50. Keep going strong. 60. Relax. 70. Focus on your breathing. 80. Almost there. I'm dying. You ARE NOT dying. 90. You wouldn't stop this close to the finish line. See the finish line. See the mat. See your family. I was completely focused on pushing through this segment to get a great marathon time. Nope, I wasn't focused on that half in March. Just the marathon at the end of the year. Go figure. I'm done! Okay, not really. But I still rejoiced at the moment.
Phase 3: I started my final phase with a recovery period and spent the vast majority of that 5 minutes doing multiplication tables and pace calculations in my mind. Don't ask me why. For some reason my thoughts carried me that way and I followed them for the bulk majority of the time. Then I did 0.1 miles at a 7'30" pace, followed by 0.4 miles at my easy pace, then another 0.1 mile at 7'30" followed by just over 5 minutes at recovery pace and slower.
The end result: 7.14 miles with an overall pace of 9'05". Pretty darn good! And yes, I still have almost 2 more miles to run later today. No worries! I think this was a great start to my day! And it made me realize, it may be time to up my standard speed paces!
And since we are already pushing things today, why not join me in the Spring Bootie Buster Challenge at Run to the Finish? I have done two Holiday Bootie Buster Challenges with Amanda and I love how it gets me back on track and focused with nutrition. As you can see, I do a pretty good job of motivating myself to run and go one step further. But how about eating a bit more freggies and drinking extra water? That I need reminders for even though I love both! And what is really cool is that participants get some Lock Laces! I have been dying to try those and I will finally get the chance....if dear hubby doesn't pout too much and convince me to hand them over to him. If you join in on the fun, please let Amanda know Erica G, or Life as a Running Mom, sent you. The challenge runs from March  4 to April 21. Let's go!
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful for birdsong.
Daily Affirmation: I am enjoying eating healthy and nutritious foods.