Weekly Summary

What a crazy week! Wednesday I headed out to World of Beer in downtown Pensacola for my weekly 5k 'easy' run. Coach says I need easy runs in the schedule. It will get my body use to the pace I want to keep for my marathon. I did much better this week then last! My goal for my easy runs is 11 minutes. This week I did:
Mile 1: 9:44
Mile 2: 9:31
Mile 3: 9:43
I have trouble with starting off slow. I have tons of energy at the start and I end up going out the gate way too fast. This week I constantly said, "slow down, enjoy the run, look at that view!" I found my run a lot more enjoyable then when I'm trying to keep up with everyone else. The group I run with offers a 5k and 10k route option. I eventually want to run the 10k every week. Next week I'm going to tack on some extra distance.
Thursday I met with my trainer. He had a nice little 'surprise' for me - we were working outside. He gave me a 12 pound medicine ball and then we got to work. Now, this was not one of those tiny medicine balls, it was big. There were 4 exercises I did, followed by a 5 minute rest. I'm not sure what the distance I actually covered was; next time I'm going to snag some photos after my workout. I would say that it was the distance of one straightaway on a track.
Exercise 1: squat and throw the 12lb medicine ball up like a basketball (as you throw jump off the ground), run to where it lands, repeat all the way down and back.
Exercise 2: squat and throw the 12lb medicine ball like a granny throw (grab ball off ground, come up between your legs and throw into the air), run to where it lands, repeat all the way down and back.
Exercise 3: squat and throw the 12lb medicine ball behind your head (as shown in photo), run to where it lands, repeat all the way down and back.
Exercise 4: run 700 meters at 80-90%
Rest 5 minutes, repeat two more times.

The times for my run were as follows:
1: 3:29.93
2: 3:42.75
3: 3:29.82
I was so tired. On each run I felt like there was no way I was going to finish without walking. I just kept fighting the urge to walk. I told myself, I got this, I can do this, just slow down a little and you'll make it through without walking. I thought for sure that my last 700 meter run would be my slowest, I was surprised to hear it was my fastest! And when I got home, I had to look up how far 700 meters was! It felt like forever, but really I was thinking about a half mile. It's .435 miles - I wasn't far off!
My trainer said the purpose of these type workouts are to help with my endurance, so that when I'm running that marathon I can push through it. Sometimes I wonder what I talked myself into with this marathon!!
After my workout I got my prize for the pull-up challenge! It was a free two hour rental for either a kayak or paddle board!! I'm super excited. I've always wanted to try both, now I have to figure out which one I want to do the most...decisions, decisions, decisions...

Today is Saturday. It was going to be the start of my speed training, however my running coach had other plans come up so he had to cancel (he's certifying a race course for an upcoming 5k). I can't just go out and do my speed work because Chris has duty so I'm home with the kids. No biggie...I didn't really want to do speed work...right?! I might not get my long run in tomorrow either because of this crazy weather. The past three weeks we've managed to get our long runs in before the storms came; this week we might not be so lucky. This is how I feel about how my weekend forecast is looking...