Oh. My. Gosh!!

Thursday – 5 miles + Strength Training

• 5.20 miles, 59’ 41” minutes, 11’ 28” min/mile average pace, 147 BPM average heart rate
• Kettlebells – 2X Fat Blast Workout (24 minutes)

I didn’t have the energy to get up when my alarm went off to workout. I figured that I could use my run today to get used to running at night, which is what Jeff Galloway suggested in one of the articles in the Official Race Program. Unfortunately, I didn’t really think that through very well because I also had a kettlebell workout scheduled for today. I also didn’t account for the fact that my parents would want to go to dinner. As the day wore on, my workout was being pushed back more and more. I soon realized that I wouldn’t be getting any kind of break between my run and my kettlebell workout if I was going to get to bed at reasonable hour or at least before midnight.

I finally climbed on the treadmill around 9:45. The stupid treadmills that I use have a preset time limit of 60 minutes. From experience, I knew that it was going to take me at least 55 minutes to run 5 mile (probably a few minutes more), which means I didn’t have time to do my normal five minute walking warm up. According to the Nike+ training program, my run today is supposed to be 1 to 2 miles of easy running followed by 5 x 3 minute intervals at tempo effort with 1 to 3 minutes of easy running and then finished off with easy running. I started my run by setting the belt pace to 3.5 mph to compensate for not doing my usual walking warm up. I maintained that pace for 5 minutes and then increased the pace to 4.0, which I stayed at until my iPod told me that I had completed 2 miles. I waited a little bit longer for the next even minute until I pressed the interval button on the treadmill. It isn’t that I pressed the wrong interval type but I didn’t do the math correctly in my head. I ended up selecting the 1-3 interval, which meant 2 minutes easy and 6 minutes tempo. Oops! I continued with my selection anyway setting my tempo effort to 5.0 mph. I also made sure that the belt incline was set to 0%. Because my intervals were not exactly what was called for, I only made sure that I ran for 2 miles instead of the correct number of intervals. After those two miles, I set the belt pace to 4.0 and ran the last mile. I was surprised how well I felt after the intervals. I felt strong and that is something that I haven’t in a while. I finished my run with a five minute walking cool down.

My kettlebell workout scheduled for today was to do the 12 minute Fat Blast Workout twice. I didn’t start this workout until after 11 but I did successfully get through the scheduled workout. When I was done, I was drenched with sweat and completely out of breath. I actually laid on the floor panting for several minutes before getting up and washing up for bed. The 15 lb. kettlebell absolutely kicked my butt tonight! And I totally loved it! I could barely move when I was done so I can only imagine how I will fell tomorrow.