CrossFit

WOO!!  We made it to Friday!  I am super excited for the weekend because Chris, Emmalyne, and I are headed to Orlando for the weekend.  We have the opportunity to attend a marriage retreat hosted by the Army.  I have heard nothing but good things about the Strong Bonds retreats and I have been hoping for the last 5 years that we would get the chance to go.  Maria has raved about them and now I can’t wait!  I am using today as my rest day for the week but I did manage to squeeze in a great week of workouts for Fitness Friday 🙂

 

 

MONDAY

 

Monday morning I hit the gym for some group fitness classes.  I did boot camp first and had my booty handed to me.  My shoulders and legs were jello.  It felt great afterwards to stretch it out in vinyasa yoga.

 

TUESDAY

 

Tuesday marked day 1 of half-marathon #4 training.  It was an easy 3 mile run with an average pace of 9:14 … definitely faster than my goal.  Which for once isn’t a good thing but more on that in a minute.  After the run, I did a CrossFit WOD in the garage.  4 rounds of tabatas for wall balls, sumo deadlift with high pull, box jumps, and push presses.

 

WEDNESDAY

 

My time at the gym started with 5x400m repeats at 5K pace.  I did each 400m at 7.2 mph and then recovery at 5.7 mph.  Followed the speed work with a WOD that left me breathless.

 

THURSDAY

 

Yesterday was another great day with running and yoga.  I went to Awakening Yoga Studio (my fav) for intermediate vinyasa flow.  It ended up being myself and a friend so we got tons of one-on-one adjustments and attention from Lisa.  It was an awesome class and challenged me.  I headed to J.F. Gregory after for a quick 3 mile run on the trail.  I averaged 9:34 a mile so I am getting better at slowing down.

 

FRIDAY

Today will be my rest day since I have 2 runs planned for the weekend.  Plus we will be driving and diving right in to our marriage retreat 🙂

 

So why did I bring up needing to slow down on my training runs?

 

I am trying something new this time around with training.  I will talk more about my plan soon (it’s a lot like my last one) but today I want to talk about paces.  The last three times I have trained for races I found myself pushing my limits on my long runs and trying to run my goal pace every week.  Inevitably 2-3 weeks before the race I would start feeling burned out, tired, and sometimes a little injured.  After the Rock-N-Roll Savannah last month I started focusing on how to change things up for Augusta in August.

 

I have been aware of the McMillan Running site and pace calculator for awhile not but honestly never gave it much thought until now.  I logged in to the site, plugged in my goal time of 2:10, and got the following paces for my training runs:

 

 

Notice what it says on long runs?  I should be running a pace of 9:33-10:50.  Never once did I allow myself to go over the 10 minute a mile mark in my last training.  After talking with a running coach here I have decided to try to slow things down a bit and see what happens.  My new motto?  Train slow to race fast.

 

Now I don’t know if this will work or not but I figure it’s an experiment worth trying.  Long runs are about building mileage and endurance anyway.  I am thinking my body will hold up better if I slow things down.  If it works it works.  If it doesn’t then I will try something else next time.

 

Do you train slow or fast?  Have you used the McMillan running pace calculator before?  Did it work?

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