April 16, 2016

4.5 Miles Just For Fun

Yesterday, for the first time in a very long time, I headed out for a run in my neighborhood. As much as I love my neighborhood, running in it can be a little bit daunting, because it’s just constant hills no matter where I go. Plus, since I live right on the middle of a long big hill, it means that either the beginning or the end of my run is always pretty tiring. But every time I actually make it out and go for a run, I’m so glad that I did… and yesterday was no exception.

Neighborhood_Run
I definitely stopped to take a few pics along the way… love this one!

Unlike today’s blizzard, yesterday was a beautiful spring morning. (Oh, Colorado weather, how fickle you are!) On my run, I was really excited to see tons of trees in bloom. Are these cherry trees with the white blossoms? I don’t know. I’m definitely not a horticulturalist; I save everything garden-related for my mom. So: name that tree!

Road_to_the_Flatirons
Spring has sprung! And now I realize that I probably should have gotten a close up of the trees in bloom if I actually wanted someone to help identify them…

While running around the hills of the open space behind my neighborhood, I was especially excited to see that a lot of green everywhere. There was a big fire about two months ago that destroyed a lot of the vegetation in this area, and while a lot of people told me that it would eventually be good for the natural habitat, I didn’t quite believe it. (See also: I’m not a horticulturalist.) But it’s already green again – yay!

Regrowth_in_the_Open_Space
Somehow I’m betting my HOA will NOT allow me to burn all the yellow grass in my yard (like that in the foreground of this pic) so that it would grow back in green (like the background of this pic).

My big takeaway from my run yesterday morning was not how great it is to get out and run… because really I already know that. (Well, at least most of the time – a reminder of how fun it can be sure doesn’t hurt.) Instead, I learned about how much of a difference my effort makes in my speed.

After PRing in the 5K two weeks ago, I thought that my natural pace without effort had now graduated to speedy. Yesterday morning I set out with podcast (but no watch) and I assumed my time would still be pretty fast, like it had been in the race. I wasn’t going hard, necessarily, but didn’t running a fast 5k mean that I am now part of that group that can go out and run 7 minute miles all the time? The answer to that is a big fat NO.

In order to be fast, I have to fix my mind on it and and focus my efforts on running fast – and then I can do it without a problem. Yesterday, though, I was zoning out and listening to podcasts – and as a result of that inattention, my paces were in the 9 to 10 minute range (particularly when I was on the hills I mentioned earlier). But I really love listening to podcasts while I’m running; sometimes, the promise of great podcast content is what gets me out the door. So I’m not going to give that up either!

So in short, I discovered that if a workout is an easy run meant for recovery, it’s fine to listen to a podcast. But if I’m actually trying to train to go fast, I need to either put on music so that my mind can focus on going fast instead of on digesting content, or I need to be at the gym, where an instructor will push me and a treadmill won’t lie. Relaxing miles aren’t going to get me anywhere when it comes to improving my race times. However, they’re a lot of fun, so there’s a place for those as well, and I’m not going to stop taking photo-filled runs anytime soon.

And of course, the flip side is that running a fast time (whether in a race or in training) is also really fun. I started running to surprise everyone, and myself, with what I could achieve. Now, looking down at my watch at the end of a hard workout and seeing how fast I ran is what gets me surprised and excited. I love hitting crazy speeds on the treadmill (11mph on all my sprints at a tread class this week, even on an incline!), and I love seeing my watch register a finish time or a pace that I didn’t think I could achieve. While the work to get me there might not be easy and might not even be all that fun in the moment, it is really fun when you get to the end result in the form of a time you never thought possible.

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4 thoughts on “4.5 Miles Just For Fun”

  1. It’s either a Callery Pear or Hawthorn tree. Both have very similar white blooming flowers, and both give off smells. I grew up with several pear trees in our yard in Kansas City and loved them (so pretty!). And they definitely do not grow pears… They’re named that for their shape. 🙂 I know way too much about this tree.

    P.S. I feel totally creepy but I’ll be in your neighborhood for a couple hours today to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and niece with my mom before we head back to KC tomorrow! Too bad it isn’t a gorgeous colorado day or I’d suggest a quick walk with their dog, Molly!

  2. When it comes to getting faster embrace the slow miles! I think it depends how much you run but I run 5-6 days 30-40 miles and 75-80% of my running 10+ minute miles with avg HR under 130. And I race in the 8’s (and finally some sub 8’s in last weeks 4 miler) so don’t be afraid of going slow to get fast! I’ve also stopped listening to music in shorter races and put it off during the half. It definitely helps to focus on effort and breathing without that distraction.

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