Friday, May 1, 2009

Speed Demon

After taking a little break from running after my 5K (it wasn't intentional, I just got lazy :) ), I decided to start up a new running program aimed at increasing my speed. I don't want to ever go really fast, but I feel like if I can increase my speed it will help me be an overall better runner. So far I have followed the program each day this week and let me just say...it's kicking my booty! But I love it because that means my booty is getting smaller ;)

It's a good mixture of fartleks, acceleration strides, and easy long distance runs all designed to help me run at a little faster pace than my last 5K. So far I'm liking it. Even though some of the days are kind of scary looking when they talk 4 x 400 meter stuff, you really don't ever go over 3 miles total with the exception of your long days which for me are Saturdays.

My next race is on the 4th of July in good old Sandy, Utah. It's really the perfect location since we'll probably be there for a July 4th celerbation at my in-laws anyway. I've even convinced my husband to run it with me (he'll totally wail on my time, but that's okay...I'm not in it to win it. I just want to survive it! haha) and my mother-in-law to walk it! Hopefully the Utah weather will work it's magic and it will be cooler that day :).

My goal for this Freedom Fourth of July 5K is to run it in about 31 minutes, which is 3 minutes faster than my previous 5K time. My "big picture" idea is to run a couple more 5K distance races and then move up to 10Ks for a little while. Of course, I am working towards a potential marathon, but that could take years! haha! I'll just keep chugging along until then.

If any of you loyal readers would like a copy of this new speed training program, I'd love to share it. It is really great because you can customize it to your own personal goals. It just says things like "faster than your current pace" so it's nice that way.


Happy Running!

No comments: