Awesome!! Check mark for the bucket list!

I told my runner brother-in-law that I love running outside because I hardly break a sweat compared to dripping sweat on the treadmill. He laughed and said if I am not sweating, I need to push myself more. Oh....I thought it was the nice cool breeze keeping me from sweating. LOL

all, sorry for being absent
im in North Dakota living on an Oil Rig for the Week... i have however, still been running everyday,and wholley crap! there's OXYGEN here!! compared to running at 6000 to 10,000ft, and i can breath and run forever lol

speed work for half marathon training....... this is your first? everyone will tell you to concentrrate on just being able to complete the distance. do you have a goal pace? you must be realistic as well..... fir distance training your best speed work is going to come in the form of repeats at longer distances. 1 KM repreats,or 1 mile repeeats, or even 800 m...... the longer the repeat the slower it is, but they should all be done quickly, in YOUR CASE. start with 4X 800 meter with Recovery AT YOUR GOAL PACE (a 10minutemile? a 9 min mile?) at this point your 1/2 marathon pace is probably your onlypace? am i correct? Thats not an insult, its just with new(er) runners they really only have one pace, whatever they naturally run. I would do 800 m repeats at faster than 10K pace for you, or close to threshold.... basically, uncomfortably fast, ut not UNGODLY fast. You should be able to complete them....... then recover 400 to 800 meters at your goal pace.... this will teach your legs your goal pace, even when they are fatigued they will naturally strt falling into that pace... its also a great way to increase your base speed..... the longer youve been training as a runner, the more fine tuned your paces will be. You will develope different paces for diferent races. for ex: my "current" marathon pace is a 9 min mile (working on making it an 8:17) and my half mary pace is at and 8 min mile, and my 10K pace is a 7:15-to 7:30, which happens to be my threshold. I dont know my 5 kpace..... i always assume a sub 7........ the other form ofspeedwork is doing lactic acid threshold runs, or temporuns... these are hard, but you realllyNEED to know your numbers to do them correctly.
Warm up, the run .5 miles (400 meters) at FASTER than 5K pace... so this will be pretty mush AS FAST AS you can run a quarter mile, but NOT a sprint, then immediately downshift to your threshold, or 10K pace for a half mile (800 M) without resting in between..... after that, downshift to GOALhalf maathon pace without a rest..... this siimulates the fatigue you will be feeling in the later stages of the race, but while still maintaining the pace you want.... if you actually hit the right paces before hand, like threshold, then it will teach your body not ONLY to tolerate and continue to operate as LActic acid builds up,but will also teach your body how to process out the lactic acid faster, so it doesnt accumulate, THUS raising your threshold. Repeat the whole thing 3-6 times, depending on you.
this is the best way to increase speed, AND train to run the disance. Cardiovascularly you are in good enough condition to do it now i am sure..... so VO2Max workouts arent going to be as beneficial to you (short, fast intervals)

Fatpants-Speed is out of my expertise. I'm still working om distance mostly. I do know that speed work can be quite challenging. There are plenty of good programs to train with, Hal Higdon comes to mind. I always have had to do any speed work on a treadmil. For some reason I'm really slow on the road (10:00-10:30), but on a treadmill I can comfortably do 8-9 sometimes 7 if I'm really pushing, but not for very long. Hopefully MK will chime in, she's pretty knowledgeable on speed.

6 miles went well this morning, even with the head cold and ear infection I've developed. I was considering flipping today and Fridays run since Fridays is only 3, but I was feeling good and just went with it. Now I'm hungry! Trying to hold out for breakfast though, I have plenty of cals planned for today knowing I was going to run 6 and my jeans feel snug so...no extras for me today! Relosing an extra few after maintentaing for 9 months sucks, I don't recommend it, but I think it might be a maintenance right of passage.

ETA: hey look at that, MK and I were simuposting!

ST and yoga today. I'm looking forward to it, but not because I'm ridulously sore from the new ST program I started Tuesday. 3-4 miles planned for tomorrow, nice and easy.

Hope everyone is well.

MkRoyer, thank you so much for that post! I understand the concept, and you're pretty much right-- If I'm just running for fun at a comfortable speed, it's around a 10:15-10:30, and if I am trying to be speedy, 10 minute miles (which was my 8K pace, I finished in 50:18). So, I sort of feel like since I've got all this time to prepare, I can incorporate some work geared toward a better pace.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sounds good, ncuneo! I kinda miss yoga...

I am the opposite. On the road, I run about a 10 to 10:30 mm, but on the treadmill I run a 12 mm and it feels 100x harder than running outside, AND I did almost all of my running inside until it got nicer out.

I ran my farthest distance so far, 4.3 miles. It was one of those days where my heart, lungs, and legs were all cooperating and I felt like I could run forever, but I ran out of time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why some days 2 miles feels like every step is a chore, and why some days I feel like I can fly. I thought it had to do with fuel, seemed my evening runs were better after a day's worth of food, but this run was done on just a cup of coffee, so there goes that theory.

Ncueno-- what new strength training program are you doing?
FPSK- oure welcome for the speed training info. If you have any questions about what specific paces you should be trying to hit for any distances just let me know... i can help you figure it out

WEll, im leaving the Oil rig today... The well is finally reached total depth. Im eager to get home, but i have a 12 hour drive in front of me...ugh!! and i still cant leave!! it will prob be a couple/few more hours.......... looking at getting home realistically around midnight. YUK. i really wwant to go for a quick run to burn off some energy since ill be stuck in a car on my butt all day... Its starting to rain here though, and its windy and chilly..... all 3 equal a bad combination

I'm doing the Venus Index, it's women specific and I've only done 2 workouts, but it was quite a challenge. So much so my easy 3 miler was a kick in the pants this morning. I'm sure lack of sleep and being sick was more the reason, but OMG I wanted to die! Nothing sucks more then a hard short run. Oh well. I'm exhausted today and just feeling a bit blah...luckily tomorrow's a rest day.

Have continued my running hiatus in an attempt to allow my knee time to heal. I read a bit more about runners knee and ITB (I already know I have ITB problems and have a foam roller that I really need to use more often) and am working on quad strengtheners to provide my knee more support.

I may try to go for a run (on a treadmill, it's now 105 degrees where I live) and see what happens. I bought NEW SHOES (Saucony ProGrid!) and am dying to try them so fingers crossed!!

Can I join you here? I've finally decided to get back into jogging. I've been trying other stuff exercise wise but I really miss the simplicity of jogging ... just get on your shoes and leave from home (or whereever you are) anytime ....

Did a 5k event the week before last and I'm trying to build up a little more distance each week .... this morning I did 7.5 km .... (it was a nice crisp frosty morning here)... nothing could make you feel "cleaner') ..

Just being nosy .... Mkroyer .... what do you do on an oil rig? .... sounds exciting ....

I'd love to build up to doing a half-marathon again ... good luck to those training for the half and beyond .... maybe i'll join you when I work up some endurance ...

I usually do the treadmill during the week at the 24 hour gym (I go about 10pm to fit in with my husbands schedule) and a long run outside in the weekend ... I go faster outside and can go much further .... but i'm grateful I can still fit in the run ....

indiblue Yay for new shoes! I have some too and I've only run in them once so far..!

I have my last race of the season tomorrow, a women's only 5k. I've managed to get in the first start block (which i think is pretty funny because I am aiming at around 25mins, which is good but not top start block worthy) so hopefully I'l come in at under 25mins and finish the season on a high!

I am scheduled for a foot operation on 31st May, so this is likely to be my last run for four months while my foot heals. I haven't done any training for weeks, but did a 4.75km race last weekend. It took 2 days for my foot/leg to recover from that though, so surgery is definitely the right decision. Still sucks that I won't be able to run properly until September or October though, and I can't even swim for 2 months. I better not get fatter to add insult to injury

I'll still read this thread to torture myself though

New here! Can I join in? I am a big time 'running lover' =)
Been running for just over 10months and have run a handful of 5K's (PR of 25:36 on a slightly short but SUPER hilly course in April) and my first 1/2 this month (2:08:45). I am hoping to run another 5K or 2 this summer and a 10K as well. I am going to run my 2nd 1/2 in Sept with my hubby =)
I ran an easy 7 miles this morning as my long run for last week (my running weeks are Mon-Sun), then I will run an easy 4-5 on Tuesday and a tempo on Thursday and hopefully a couple recovery pace miles on Fri (going to work on running 4x a week from 3x a week)
You all are doing great!

Hi rawbanana I can recommend running with your partner! I ran my second half with my boyfriend and he kicked my arse the whole way round. I would have defo slowed down if he wasn't there...

Yesterday I had my last 'race' (if you can call it that) of the season (once again, Jan-May - season?!) and got a PB for 5k! So I am finishing this year off on a high Just as well because all my stabilisation muscles (outside of quad, knee) absolutely KILL today from where I roll outwards to avoid putting weight on my painful bunion. Surgery in a week so fingers crossed that'll sort out the problem.

So my PBs for this year were:

5k - 24:35
Half marathon - 2:07:46

My goals for next year are:
5k 0 23:something (under 24mins)
10k under 52mins
Half under 2 hours.

I'm planning to do my races pyramid style starting with 5k--> 10k --> half in April --> 10k ---> 5k and have the summer as a cross training rest period (I hate summer running). Realistically I think i could do a 5k in November but won't expect PBs because I won't have time to do much training before.

Enjoy the rest of the running season everyone, good luck with your races and keep at it! I'll read this thread anyway because I find it motivational

Hello, been about 2 months so I popped by, It was hard with school to keep up with all the places that I recorded my running, lol. Yikes.

Ok so far this year I'm at 567 miles ran.....

My First Full Marathon is this Sunday! Wow two 20 mile training runs and lots of weekly running (about 30-40 miles weekly) I am so excited to run this!