Training Day 9 - Thursday

It was time for my second run on my 1/2 marathon plan. Today was another maintenance run. It's meant to be around 30 minutes, then length not mattering. My main goal was to keep my pace under 15 minutes a mile, and improve it if possible. My schedule was thrown off by some morning rain. So instead of running early before working, I started working earlier then ran at lunch time. It was a short rain in the morning, so I knew it would / should clear up later to run, so I went with that instead running in the rain.

Yet Another App

I haven't gotten a physical timer yet to do my intervals. I'm not sure if I will, but I'm looking into it. I want to use something other than Endomondo for the intervals. Endomono is great for tracking my pace, distance, updating me on my averages and everything else of the run. I lose that if it tracks my intervals as well. I've decided, at least for now to use another app in conjunction with everything else. I'm using the aptly name Run Walk Intervals Timer. It's basic, but does it's job. You can set your own custom run and walk interval, add a warm up and cool down if you'd like, and customize the wording it says to prompt you to run and walk. The only small issue I have with it is I cannot seem to have my phone on vibrate and have it still have the audio prompt. However they're doing the text to speech, it is silenced when on vibrate, even though I have media playing. Small inconvenience, but I just keep the ringtone at the first level above vibrate instead.

The Run

My run went pretty well. Instead of running the lake, I ran straight down Burke Centre Parkway. It has paths the whole way, which makes it great for running. In fact, the whole area is really good for this. I decided on because there is an 8K on that next weekend, that is tempting to me. I have to do 4 miles next weekend, and 8K is 5 miles. I wanted to try running it, to see how difficult of a path it is. The run starts with a pretty long steady incline. It was tough, but I handled it pretty well. The only problem on my run was around my shins was really tight. I did barely any stretching, so that could be the likely culprit, combined with the incline. I was able to improve my pace as well. My first mile was barely over 14 minutes. My average pace was 14:17 minutes, on over 30 second per mile improvement. It was humid out, so I was tired and sweated a good bit, but still felt good at the end and like I could have kept going. I hope to keep feeling this way at the ends of my runs, so I can build my confidence of distance.

The Stats

Time: 33:51 mins (workout), 56:24 (total)
Distance: 2.37 miles (workout), 3.30 miles (total)
Average Speed: 4.20 mph
Average Pace: 14:17 min / mile