The fast and the frugal

I've been spending a lot of time on the internet lately reading running blogs.  Because it's summer, and when I'm not running, cycling, swimming, or walking Lucy, I've got some time on my hands.  And in most of these blogs I've been reading, the blogger ladies post their running splits, which always seem to be just slightly faster than mine (a lot more miles in that 8's than the 9's, and some even in the 7's).  

I know that I'm not a slow runner.  My high 8 and low 9 minute miles are something that I'm proud of, but I also know that I could run faster.  If I really wanted to.  On interval runs while training for the San Diego RNR Marathon, I did miles that reached down into the low 8's, and for short bursts of time I could even sustain some high 7's.  So I know I'm capable of running faster.

To be honest though, most of the time I think that I'm a lazy runner.  I love getting out there and putting in the miles, but I don't necessarily love pushing myself during those miles.  I usually just find my comfortable breathe-easy pace and stick with it.  

So yesterday morning, when I woke up and suddenly felt an urge to just run fast (more than likely a result of my blog reading), I went with it.  In the back of my mind, I knew I probably should have been doing some hill reps in preparation for the Nike Women's Half, but in all honesty I'd much rather run fast miles that hilly ones.  So I took my urge to go fast and ran with it (haha, pun, kind of).

Here's how the run turned out:

This run was exactly 4 miles.  Like not even a hundredth of a mile over or
under.  I didn't do that on purpose, but the little secret part of me that loves
round numbers was super pleased.

I started with a slow warm up mile, because even though I wanted to go fast, I didn't want to hurt myself.  But the minute my watch told me I had completed my first mile, I started running.  I didn't pay attention to my pace or my watch.  I just pushed it, ran fast, and ran hard.  And I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Look at that 8:03 mile!  According to Nike+, the fastest mile I have on record is an 8:02, and that was during an interval run.  

And the funny thing was, even though I was pushing and running hard, I think I still could have gone faster.  My legs are feeling stronger right now than I think they've ever felt.  I guess I didn't realize that all this "leisurely" swimming, running, and biking I've been doing this summer is actually making me stronger.  I've been thinking all this time that I've just been doing all this exercise because I enjoy it and it's how I like to spend my summer days.  But it's actually making me strong.  Funny how that works.

As I rounded the last leg of Green Lake on this run, I tried to slow down for at least half a mile of cool down, but as you can see, even my "cool down" still kept me in the 8:30s.  I admit that I did not run the hill back up to my apartment.  I felt I had done enough work in my very exact 4 miles.  Hills will come another day.  We're running the Arboretum this weekend.  I'll get my hills in then.

After the run, I had a leisurely day reading blogs on the internet again.  But yesterday instead of running blogs, I decided to try to get myself motivated to do some work for school.  I brought a few bags of work home to do after my last day of summer school and hadn't touched it.  So all day I pinterested, I read teacher blogs, I searched for pictures of classroom set-ups and ideas for a classroom theme (which in my 6 years of teaching I've never done, but am kind of excited to implement my planned "garden" theme).  

In my blog hopping, I found lots of links to free giveaways including fun and useful classroom materials.  I also stumbled upon www.teacherspayteachers.com, a website were you (and other teachers) can develop your own materials, upload them and then sell them online.  Like an Etsy, but for teachery stuff.  I think I may have found out how I will make my millions.  All those graphic organizers I made last year as "evidence" for meeting "power standards"?  Yep, I think I should sell them.  For money.

Then I became a letter-cutting-out pro for the rest of the evening.

Letter cutting set-up: Mini paper cutter, ziploc bags,
computer streaming Hell's Kitchen, glass of water, glass of
wine, very unhelpful Lucy dog.

This morning, I woke up and was so motivated to do teachery things that I went to the Dollar Tree.  Oh how I love the Dollar Tree.  Everything literally costs $1.  That actually still exists.  And they have lots of stuff for creative teachers.  Or for teachers who have been pinteresting and blog reading for a whole day, prepping them to want to be creative.  Now I have more stuff in my apartment.  Including fake flowers for my garden room.  Cause I'm going to grow first graders in my garden room.  So creative.  So excited.

Then after being in teacher mode for over a day (and a short little trip to the zoo), I wanted to run fast again.  I was supposed to meet up with Erica and MacKenzie for a run before a Team in Training leadership team meeting, but MacKenzie wasn't feeling up to running and Erica was late getting out of work.  And then I was stuck on the Burke Gilman (without headphones, so no music).  So to pass the time?  Run fast.  Of course.  I only had time for a 30 minute run.  Here's what I did:

Not quite as fast as yesterday, but still faster than my average run.

Just before I hit my turn around point on the trail, I ran into 2 of my winter teams coaches, Nadine and Kelly, who had also met up for a pre-meeting run.  I turned around and ran back with them, and despite the speed, I was surprised that I was able to talk without being out of breath.

The "breath test" is a great way to gauge your effort.  On long runs, you should be able to easily hold a normal conversation.  But on runs that require more effort, you may only be able to get out 2-3 words at a time--or on really hard runs, one...maybe.  I had been assuming that talking would be hard for me at this pace.  But it wasn't.  Which means that I should actually be able to sustain this faster pace over longer distances.  Hmmm, we shall see.

Who knows how long this burst of speed may last for me.  I seem to go through phases of running where I'm  really motivated to push and train hard and then I revert back into lazy running, just out there to get the easy miles in and get home.  Looking back at my running logs, I realized I've run the last 4 days in a row.  I was fully intending to get up tomorrow and finally get a hill rep run in.  But I'm doing a longer hilly run on Saturday, so that might be a not so great idea.  Wasn't it just a week or so ago that I was complaining about how I hate running in the summertime?  I'm not sure what's going on right now, but I'm going to ride this wave of feeling strong and fast as long as I can.  Hopefully all the way up until the Goofy Challenge in January.  Those are some high hopes, but a girl can dream, right?