10 Reasons to become a Spring Morning Runner

It is finally Spring!  Time to come out of gym hibernation and hit the roads for some runs.  This has to be my favorite time of year for running in the morning.  I did a post like this about reasons to run in the predawn during winter, but I think morning running in the spring is a lot more appealing to most people.

1. It is finally light out before 7am (and soon 6am!)

Having the sun rise earlier and earlier makes morning runs more enjoyable because you can see where you are going. And the early sunrise make getting out of bed easier too!

2. You don't need as much clothing as during the winter. 

There's nothing like throwing on a pair of shorts and a long sleeve shirt and heading out the door for a run.  Without spandex and all those heavy layers, it makes running feel easier!

3. Spring running clothes are way cuter than winter running clothes.

Capris, tank tops, shorts, long sleeves.  All these are so much cuter and fun to wear than winter spandex and under armour tops.

4. Since its light out, you don't need to wear that goofy headlamp anymore.

I am so ready to ditch the headlamp (and the hat). And the gloves.

5. Some of the best sunrises happen in the spring. 

There have been so many mornings where I wish I had run with my camera in order to capture the most beautiful sunrise.

6. Persuading your running buddy to run in the AM with you is more likely to happen in the spring when the weather is nice.

Predawn running is even better with a buddy and with the nicer weather, it is easier to meet up for a run.

7. The morning temperatures are more enjoyable than the winter.

I will take 50F or 60F any morning rather than the freezing cold 30F.

8. No more battling snow covered roads and trails.  

Running is more fun when it isn't snowing!  Plus seeing the trees bloom and bring all that vibrant green color back to the world is so amazing.

9. Spring makes running a double workout so much easier.

Squeezing in some AM miles before a PM speed session seems so much more doable when you don't have to go out into the cold, bundled up in tons of clothes. 

10. You start the day off with a caloric deficit.

Best part of morning running! Can't beat burning 400 or 500 (or more) calories before breakfast.  Just means you can eat more cupcakes later!

Happy Spring Morning Running!

Sugar Coma

I did two things this weekend - run and eat. Although not at the same time.

Saturday morning, I met up with my Saturday early morning running group for a 16 mile run.  It started out flat and then got super hilly!  I think one of my favorite things about my garmin is that I get to see the elevation charts from all my runs. 

My legs were already beat up from the race Sunday, tempo run Tuesday, and marathon paced run Thursday so this run was pretty tough towards the end.  Thankfully I had a buddy who helped to get me through it.

Post run, the eating began as Brian and I celebrated Easter with my family on Saturday night.  We followed up that feast with an Easter brunch at his family's home on Sunday morning. 

 

I may have overdosed on the awesome Easter cookies and a whole bag of Starburst jelly beans.

 

But today is Monday which means a brand new week and a chance to start over on the healthy eating. It's not really going so well since everyone brought in their leftover cake and Easter candy...

Thanks, Runners' World

Tonight's dinner was brought to my kitchen by Runner's World and The Athlete's Palate.

After work tonight, I made Quick, Creamy Chicken Lasagna and it was delicious!  I have to be honest and say it was not all that quick because it did take me about 45 minutes to prepare because I had to cook the lasagna noodles and the chicken.  Once everything was ready though, it took me less than 10 minutes to assemble this all together and pop it into the oven.  And then the lasagna had to bake in the oven for 45 minutes. 

After all that, it was finally done and it was delicious!  I had to pull myself away from this because I kept going back and nibbling on the edges. 

The leftovers will be great tomorrow night after my almost end of the week long run.  The perfect reward after a tough day at work and a long workout!

Sometimes I am afraid to try new recipes for dinner because what if it doesn't come out right, then we wont have any dinner.  So far so good though, I have only had a few failures with a too soupy mac and cheese and a cauliflower pizza crust.

Do you often try new recipes or just stick to the ones you know??

Semi Solo Tempo Tuesday

Tempo Tuesday - It comes around each week and this week I was not looking forward to it. 

The longer the tempo miles get, the harder the workout and tonight was an especially long workout.  Last week I did 2x2mi at tempo pace and this week it bumped up to 2x3mi at tempo.

All day at work my mind would slowly stray away from my work and drift to my workout.  I was doubting my ability to run that fast for that long.  What if my legs were too tired and I just could not hold on?  What if this workout was just too hard for me?  What if, what if, what if! 

Why do we as runners let these thoughts control us and let us lose sight of the fact that we can run fast and run well!

By the end of the day, I did my best to push aside all the negative thoughts and headed to my running club.  I warmed up alone and really thought I was going to have to run my tempo miles solo but then a friend showed up.  She was tapering for a marathon but still had to do some tempo miles and although she wouldn't be with me the whole time, at least I would have a buddy.

We headed out and started the first set.  My legs actually felt good and as we continued along the miles flew by.  At the end of the first three miles, we stopped and recovered for three minutes before starting again. 

When we started the second set, my legs still felt good but I could tell I was getting tired much faster than the first set.  At about a mile into the second set, my friend veered off to do a cool down and I continued on alone.  The final solo miles were hard but with about a mile left I began to count my steps.  At first I was counting my steps for a minute to see what my revolutions per minute was.  My coach suggested this as a technique to keep stride rate up and distract from the pain at the end of a race.  After I had figured out my stride rate, I just continued to count.  I counted every 20 steps then started over again.  Somehow this distracted me from how tough the end of this run was and kept my pace fast.

I am so glad that this workout is done but also very proud that I did this.  Sometimes having a buddy for half a workout is better than none at all. 

Ending a long week with a race

This week was a very long week.  Besides pretty much everything going crazy at work this week which made me work a ton of hours, I also had my biggest mileage week ever.

Tuesday, I ran with my running club and did 2x2mi at tempo pace.  The sun was shining and although it was quite chilly compared to previous weeks, it was nice to be outside and away from the office.

With all the pressure from work, I almost didn't make it to my running club workout on Thursday where I had 13 miles planned.  But I did make it and I ran 13 miles during the week which was pretty awesome.  I felt so good running that many miles on a school night but eating enough after ward and before bed was a bit of a challenge.

Saturday I was actually able to sleep in a little bit because this week I wasn't doing a normal long run.  There was only 6 miles on my plan because Sunday was my first race of 2012. 

Sunday dawned beautiful with a red sunrise.  The redness was quickly replaced with gray gloominess as rain clouds came in.  Thankfully the rain stayed away until after the race finished.

I met up with my favorite running friends for this race.  A bunch of people from my running club run this spring 15k race in order to use it as a tune up for a spring half or full marathon.  It is a very hilly course but a great gauge of fitness level and every year there are more and more participants.

There was no shortage of fast women at this race, but I wasn't planning on really racing - I was using this race to test out a half marathon pace.  Last year I ran this race at a 7:45 pace and then 4 weeks later ran my half marathon at the same pace.  This year I am running the same half in 4 weeks so I wanted to test my fitness and see if I could hold my goal pace.

The only foreseeable problem was that I started this race with 41 miles on my legs.

I decided before the race if at any time I didn't feel good during the race I would pull back and just finish because I didn't want to run myself into the ground.  Thankfully that didn't happen.  I started off and didn't look at my garmin and just tried to run a pace that felt good.  My legs were moving along and tacking the hills as they came and recovering on the downhills.

The most exciting part of the race (for me at least) had to be about mile 6-7 when I was running alone but had sight of three women ahead of me.  My favorite distraction during a race is picking people in front of me and trying to catch and pass them.  I successfully caught up to the first women and was closer to the other two.  We then came upon the dreaded mile 7 hill that stretches for over half a mile.  I slowly reigned in the other two women and passed them just before we crested the hill.  Now all I had to worry about is those women catching me.

In my head I was counting down the miles and with only 2 left, I was very happy to be almost done with the race. With each step I was using a mini mantra I came up with for the hills - "arms machine".  It may seem odd but it worked because I was saying it in my head and moving my arms and my legs were following my arms. As I made the turn to the final uphill, I was feeling pretty good and then that hill just killed me.  Finally all the miles caught up to me and I was losing steam with only 0.2mi to go.  Once I got to the top of the hill, it was downhill to the finish - downhill on a pot hole filled dirt path.  Not exactly my favorite finish but still its downhill.

My final pace for the race was 7:26 min/mile which was just 1 second from my secret goal of 7:25.  It was a great race and I am glad that I was able to run it well and hopefully it is a sign of what my half marathon will be like in 4 weeks, but since I wont be tapering for that this year it is hard to tell how it will turn out.

After a cool down, I ended this week with 52 miles which is my highest week of miles ever and I ended March with 177 miles, also another monthly mileage record.

This week sure was hectic and long and after a post race shower and hot chocolate, I took a much needed nap.  Hopefully next week wont be as bad!

Final Stats:
Time: 1:09:16
Age group: 7/52
Overall: 91/561
Females: 20/?