I haven’t had the chance to get out for a run since Saturday, which means I missed a long run and a hill workout per the plan. So today, when I finally headed out for a run, I did the hill workout instead of going for an easy run. I managed 10x around 200m long hills, running along 3rd Street in Park Slope between 5th and 6th Avenues. I was consistent in my splits, running around 55-53 seconds for all of them, with the 55′s in the first half of the workout and the 53′s towards the end. With my run to and from the hills, it was about 5.5 miles for the day. I haven’t really done any intentional speed work in a month or so, so maybe this training plan will be a good thing for me, guilting me into a workout once a week or so. We’ll see…

And this Friday, I’m racing in a track meet at the Park Slope YMCA Armory. I’m signed up for the 3K and 800. There aren’t many women entered and registration closed yesterday, so I’m curious if they’ll combine races so I’ll have some more company. Today I did my usual pre-race routine of 200′s at goal race pace to try and get a feel for the effort level so I don’t go out too fast – I’m aiming for 6:40 pace for the 3K, just a guess given my 1500 race in December, and the 200′s felt good, so we’ll see how it goes.

I signed up for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler lottery on a whim and I got accepted so I’ll be running in DC on April 1! I’m going to find training plan for some workout ideas and see what I can fit in as it gets closer. I’m already running up to 7 miles once a week, so I don’t think a 10 mile race in April will be too much of a stretch. I’ll see as it gets closer what kind of shape I’m in… I’ve also signed up for the PPTC Cherry Tree 10 miler in February to gauge where my fitness is and make sure I can run 10 miles before the race in DC.

Since I’m pressed for time most of the time these days, I’m also going to try and add in some strength work by way of the 100 pushups training plan. I picked this to have some structure since I won’t do it at all if I don’t have a plan and because it doesn’t take up much time. We’ll see how it goes – I tried it a couple of years ago and got stuck at 4 weeks in so hopefully I’ll get further this time.

2012 is going to be another challenging year for me with all I’m taking on, but I’m ready for the challenge. Hopefully at this time next year, I’ll have a happy healthy 18 month old at home, be done with my classes for my master’s degree, and still be able to run a 6 minute mile.

To prepare, on Wednesday I ran a short 400 workout – 6×400 with 2 min rest – mainly to see what my race plan should be for Saturday. The workout went well, with all of the 400s at around 88 and I was able to finish fast, with the last one in 84. I figured this meant I could go out and run around 90 for the first lap of the 1500 without having to worry about dying in the second half of the race.

So Saturday morning, I headed over to Pratt. It was an easy trip from Carroll Gardens on the G train. When I got off the train, 3 other women got off too and we walked outside and looked around wondering where to go. Luckily, another woman in running clothes came by, saw that we looked lost and asked if we were headed to the meet and then led the way for us. When we arrived, I checked in and got a goodie bag and headed into the track area. The stands were already filling with spectators and I found a spot for my stuff and got a warmup in. I ran for about 20 minutes and did some stretching and realized at that point that nothing was starting on time. I asked one of the women nearby who looked like she’d run here before and she said that the first one of the series each year tends to start late. She was right, the first heat went off about 45 minutes after the posted 9am start time. For my age group, the first heat was all women that said they’d run 5:00 and then the second group was all sub 5:20, so it was the last heat for me. Turns out, I could have stuck with the 2nd heat and been fine as I ran well and they were a little ambitious with the 5:20 predictions, but I didn’t know it at the time. So after lots of waiting, walking around to try and stay loose and some last minute strides on the track, we were on the starting line.

And then we were off… I followed my plan and tried to stay comfortable, running the first 2 laps in 88 and in 3rd place. I realized the two women in front of me were slowing down so I went around them and led the rest of the way, trying to pay attention to my splits. I was running 45′s for the rest of the time and feeling strong. The last two laps were tough, but I never felt like I was slowing down or that the distance I had to go wasn’t going to be manageable. They didn’t give times at the finish line, so I don’t know what my final time was but I left knowing I ran a smart race and that I was happy to be running 6 minute pace for a 1500 before W’s 6 month birthday.

This was a really great event and I’m hoping I’ll be able to make it to another one in the series this winter. Even though it didn’t start on time, it was free, and it got lots of girls and women out racing on a Saturday morning. I’m finding that being a new mom is all about balance. Since I don’t have much time to devote to running, getting in shape so I can run decent times in short distances is more practical than trying to fit in longer runs so I can get the endurance to race longer distances.

Here’s W before we got going, he was already pretty sleepy…

And here we are at the Pier 1 park about half way through.

We don’t have a fancy running stroller, so I have to be careful when I go out and stick to smooth paved paths. We are too far away from Prospect Park for me to head up there on an easy day but I do have the waterfront bike path along Columbia Street and the connecting path between Pier 1 and Pier 6 so I have a nice 3.5 mile route I can use. I’m glad he’s gotten big enough to join me for a run every once in a while and that he seems to like it well enough – 3.5 miles with W is way better than not getting out at all, that’s for sure!

Splits were:
94, 95, 90, 94, 93, 90, 93, 94

I have done a few surprisingly good workouts in those 5 days though. Last week, I headed to the Red Hook track for some 400′s. This being my first post pregnancy track workout, I had no idea what to expect so I decided I’d do 4 with 200 walk/jog rest and see how I felt and then add on 2 more if I felt good. I ended up feeling great, doing all 6 in around 95-96 with the last one in 91. It felt good to work hard and get my legs moving fast again. My abs were sore the next day, but not a bad sore, a good kind of sore like they’d worked hard and were going to get stronger from it.

Yesterday, I did 6×800, at the Red Hook track once again, but instead of running on the track (it was crowded and I didn’t really feel like it anyway) I ran around the paved path around the track and ballfield next to the track, which turned about to be exactly half a mile according to my garmin. Again, I had low expectations going into this, I know 400 type workouts are my strength since I can hold a decent pace for short periods of time but I didn’t know if I’d have the stamina needed for 800s. Turns out I surprised myself again, running 6×800 with 2 minute rest all at around 3:20-3:25. So I guess I didn’t lose too much fitness!

The last two weekends, I’ve also managed “long” runs. Two weeks ago, I did around 8 miles at a slow pace, with some wandering around on the trails in Prospect Park with the team. Last weekend, I was on my own and headed to the park again, this time for a loop on the main road around the park. Got through a little over 7 miles in around 8:40 pace and felt strong.

So all this bodes well for the Bed Stuy 10K which is coming up in 3 weeks. I’ve looked at a few 10k training plans and from what I’ve read, they generally have long runs form 7-8 miles and workouts of about the same duration I’ve been doing. When I initially decided I’d run this race, I was looking at it as a “just get out there and run for my team” run, not a race. But now that I’ve been feeling so good on these workouts I may try to use it for a hard effort to see where I’m really at with my fitness. At this point, I’m not sure what my time goal will be. Going to do a tempo run or some longer intervals next week and then decide.

Not a bad first week back! The goal now is to get into a consistent routine once the excitement of being back starts wearing off and to rein in my enthusiasm and not do too much too soon, I have a feeling that will be a challenge.

As you can see, today I made it out to a PPTC group run, although I didn’t stick with them long. You see, they were heading from GAP, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and into Manhattan for the Summer Streets. While I would have loved to do that whole 10 mile run, I decided to play it safe. I met them in my neighborhood, about 2 miles into their run, and tagged along across the Brooklyn Bridge for 2.5 miles with the team, at which point I turned around and ran home. This got me 5 miles / 46 minutes which was all I needed. It was great to be out with the group though, definitely made my run go by fast. The group was huge and lots of new faces, I guess a lot has changed in the 8 or so months I’ve been away…

So the plan going forward is to wear the heart rate monitor and do some easy running over the next month. I am not going to let myself run 2 days in a row for this month, in hopes that I don’t increase my milage too fast given my enthusiasm for getting back into running. Also going to attempt to do more ab / core work and mix in low impact cardio on non running days since I really should use my gym membership. I’m writing this all down here so now I have to stick with it… I’m so happy to be back!!