Other than wanting to PR this year, I also want to shake things up before I start marathon training again. I would love to say that means I am going to drop 15lbs and eat cleaner, but who I am kidding?
Instead of pretending I’m going to quit things I enjoy, so I can be a miserable person, I’ve decided to try out new workouts and attempting to add speedwork into my weekly training plans. Yes, speedwork, something I have been vehemently against since I started running. I’m not going to lie, it’s still pretty miserable.
As for workouts, for the past 3 weeks I’ve been attending a few Camp Gladiator workouts during the week. They are hour-long bootcamp style group workouts combining both strength and cardio. Each workout has been varied and all of them have kicked me ass in a good way. I have really loved the experience — and if it didn’t cost $80 a month per person (for unlimited workouts — and there A LOT of workouts offered in my area), I would join in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, our Y membership costs about the same for all 5 of us. It includes kid care and half price on group sports for the kids. If I were child free or single though – this would be an excellent option over going to a gym.
These are the crazy people I’ve been meeting at 5:45 on MWF.
I’ve also taken a few PiYo classes, which is not something I thought I would write in a million years. I hate yoga (not even gonna sugar coat it) and pilates intimidates me, so the fact that I’ve loved the past few PiYo classes I’ve taken shocks me a little bit. One of the reasons I hate yoga is because I can’t just sit and mediate and focus on my breathing and blah, blah, blah. What I actually LIKE about PiYo is that it’s faced paced. There’s still stretching, posing, and breathing – but I have never once thought, “WHEN IS THIS GOING TO BE OVER.”
As for speedwork. UGH. I hate my friends for making me do it. Ok, that’s not true and it was partially my idea, but I still hate it. For the past two weeks we’ve had speedwork on Tuesdays — and will continue it for the next 5 weeks or so. The man motivator in all of this, is that we all finally figured out how to program our Garmins. It’s exciting times.
The first week was 3 x 1600s (with 90 second rest in between) – after warmup. My “goal” (based on my PR half pace) was something ridiculous like 7:57 miles. Ha. Since I hadn’t even seen a sub-9 mile in a while, I figured I would be happy to hit 8:45. I ended up doing better than that and hit sub 8:30.
Last week was 6 x 400s after a 2-mile warm up. My goal this time was a little nuts (7:15-7:30 per 400), but I did a better job getting closer. I felt like I was going to puke after the 5th 400, so I guess that’s the sign of a good workout.
This Tuesday is more 1600s. Have I mentioned that I hate them ALMOST as much as I hate doing ladders (the worst speedwork workout in the land). I HAVE to do better than 2 weeks ago.
So in summary, I hate speedwork, but I’m making myself do it. Also – I’m a little sore from all of my new hardcore workouts, and I have been waking up before 5am waaaaay too many times a week.
