Workout Updates and Rural Girl Sighting in MN

Tuesday was a heck of a day. It started with a quick lunch with speedy WI triathlon buddy, Rural Girl. We met up at the Mall of America where she was shopping for hoochie concert digs for a Bon Jovi concert:

She’s been to something like 613 Bon Jovi concerts because she’s not-so-secretly in love with Jon Bon Jovi. It’s probably for the best that she’s happily married with a few kids, because her kids with Bon Jovi would look like this...

...and that’s just nasty.

Then I drove home 2 hours to my parents place to spend the night. I needed to get in my 12 mile run for the week, so I planned to do it down there. I stopped at a convenience store in Wells for some quick pre-run fuel. I looked for Powerbars or some sort of gel, but they had nothing. So I settled for a DELICIOUS Cow Tail.

I LOVE THESE!

I stretched and headed out on my run. Here was my boring, boring route:

I ran a big loop from my parent’s home, into Wells, and back out again. It was 6 miles of gravel and 6 miles of highway. The last 4 miles were into the wind and VERY mentally challenging. There are NO HOMES in the last 2.5 miles of the run, so all I saw was Mom and Dad’s place SLOWLY getting closer and closer. It was tough. But I didn’t stop to walk once, and I finished in 1:27:58 (7:20/mile).

It was a hazy day, so I basically got to the edge of the haze and turned right. Repeat that a few times, and boom: 12 miles.

After the run, my feet were pretty sore. I had a few small pieces of gravel hop in my shoes. I also noticed that I didn’t grab my “Sunday best” when I was picking out socks:

And guess what that hole led to? That’s right, a nice little blister:

And then the next day, my Dad had all of his seed corn delivered for spring planting, but the truck driver forgot a ramp. So we unstacked and restacked 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of bagged seed corn. That counts as cross-training!

Last week, my long run was 10 miles, and I did that in 1:08:11 (6:49/mile). The 10-miler was in the Cities where it was not as windy and I could run on paved surfaces.

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So I’ve been doing pretty good on the long runs in my training program, and I’ve actually been ENJOYING the speed work as well. Yesterday, I did my intervals for the week. I’ve been running all my intervals along Summit Ave in St. Paul where the stoplights are a half-mile apart and it’s easy to map out a route.

• 3 weeks ago, I did 6x800 meters with 2:50 average (75 seconds rest).
• 2 weeks ago, I did 8x400 meters with 1:13 average (75 seconds rest).
• Last week, I did 4x1200 meters with 4:14 average (90 seconds rest).
• Yesterday, I did 8x800 meters with a 2:43 average (75 seconds rest) and my second interval was 2:34!

Intervals SUCK while I’m running them, but I always feel so great afterward! I may run a 5K this Sunday before going to my Grandma’s house for Easter, mostly because I’m curious how I could do in a 5K after just a few weeks of this speed work. If I were to run the same pace as I ran in the 8K last weekend, I would PR. And I think I can go faster! Happy Easter! If you’re reading from central to south Minnesota, enjoy the fresh snow!