May In Motion

We're only 8 days into May and I'm already well on my way to kicking the crap out of my April statistics.  To say I'm happy would be a gigantic understatement.  It all started last Tuesday (May 1) when The Husband (who should probably be referred to as Coach since when I run with him, I get pushed beyond every perceived limit I have) and I went for a 7 mile run.  It ended up being one of the best runs I've had in a very long time.  The mile splits were very even, except for Mile 4 which was a bit faster due to a couple of kids on Razr scooters nipping at our heels, and even that wasn't too bad.

Wednesday involved an outdoor bike ride which was cut short by an unholy number of bugs on the route.  I would have liked to ride longer, but I'll take what I can get.

On Thursday night, Coach Husband and I headed out to do a hill repeat workout. Yes, that's exactly what it sounds like: Run up long, nasty hill as fast as you can. Jog/Walk down.  Rinse. Repeat.  Naturally, my Garmin died about a mile into the run, so the only data I have, I "borrowed" from Coach Husband.  The overall average was kind of pathetic, but after a fairly fast warm-up and sprinting up hills, I did a lot of walking on the way home.  I swear that by fall, I'll be doing hill repeats and running home at a decent pace.

Friday night was a whole 'nother animal. I spent an hour on the trainer and by the time I was done, my legs were jello and I was a happy, sweaty girl.  Did I seriously hit almost 30mph at one point?!?!?!

I took it easy on Saturday, and The Husband and I considered a 2 mile walk to be a nice form of active recovery.

It was really craptacular outside on Sunday.  It was non-stop thunderstorms all day, so obviously getting outside wasn't happening.  I resigned myself to the trainer and an episode of my favorite tv show on Netflix and by the time the show was over, I had racked up some pretty good mileage.

By the time Monday rolled around, I was definitely feeling the previous 6 days of workouts, but Coach Husband talked me into a 5 miler - and then proceeded to try to kill me!   Mile 1 was easy enough. On Mile 2, he turned up the heat!  Miles 3-5 were spent trying to catch my breath/not throw up!

I wasn't sure if tonight's workout was such a good idea.  What I wanted to do was swing through the Dairy Queen drive thru in search of Heath Bar Blizzard and then park my butt on the couch with a book.

What I wanted

Fortunately, I took to Twitter in search of motivation and what I got was some much needed tough love and it motivated me out the door to do a brick workout. 

What I got

I initially planned on a 1.5 mile run, 7 miles on the trainer (due to some evil looking clouds), and another 1.5 mile run.  The first 1.5 miles went really well.  I nearly fell over when I ran the first mile in under 9 minutes.  The 7 bike miles were awesome.  The last 1.5 miles didn't go so well.  I made it a mile before my body said 'enough'.  Oh well, at least I went!

I'm definitely on a roll this month.  I know I said in my last post that my total mileage goal for May was 100 miles, but I think I may need to revise that goal upward because 8 days into the month, I've racked up 61.82 miles (18.88 running miles/42.95 cycling miles)! I know I'll need to take a rest day soon, or I'll be a prime candidate for getting injured, but I'm pretty amped about my 8 day streak.  Of course, this is all coming too late for the Madison Half Marathon, but I have 2 other half marathons, a duathlon, and mud run on my summer/fall calendar, so hopefully I'll see the benefits of all this training at those races!