Morning Miles

Good Morning!

The St. Petersburg Half Marathon is just a few days away and I’m winding down my training this week with a few final workouts. Yesterday was my final NROLFW workout before the big day and this morning was my final speed session. I wanted to get a few miles in sub-my goal pace (technically my rainbows and unicorns goal pace) of 8:00 min/mi just to give my body a little bit of a speed shock before Sunday.

My goal: mile repeats – 3×1600 @ 7:45 w/ 2:00 rests

I didn’t have access to the track this morning so I just took off from my house and relied on my Garmin to tell me when a mile was up. My first mile was a little slower than I would like due to the lack of warm-up I gave myself.

Yes, I used to be one of those people who thought the runners doing laps at the start line of races were crazy. We’re about to run XX amount of miles – why tire ourselves out before we have too? Then I realized how important a warm-up is to not only loosening up your muscles to prevent injury, but also to get your legs to a place where they’re ready to take off as soon as the race starts.

My warm-up this morning consisted of walking to the end of the street. If I were really smart – and wanted to make the most out of my work-out – I would have jogged a quarter of a mile or so instead of just going for it. My legs took a while to realize what was going on and my first mile came in at 7:55 after struggling a bit to get my pace where I wanted it in the beginning.

The second mile was better. I overcompensated for my first mile and clocked in at 7:39.

The third mile was even better. At this point I threw my 7:45 ‘goal pace’ out the window and decided it would be fun to just push it. I finished in 7:35.

Negative splits and I finished feeling strong. I’ll take it.

I finished my workout with the Tone It Up Valentine’s Day Circuit.

This was great to do while watching Monday night’s premiere of Smash via the DVR. Did anyone else catch it? What did you think? I’ve been a big fan of Katherine McPhee since her American Idol days and thought she did a great job in the role. I’m interested in how they’ll turn the show’s premise into an entire series though. We’ll see.

Breakfast wasn’t quite as amazing as yesterday’s Key Lime Oats, but it worked.

One whole wheat english muffin slathered with honey peanut butter, pumpkin butter, raisins, and walnuts.

Yep, still on my walnut kick. I bought a new container last week and I’m already half way through it. I may have a walnut addiction on my hands – they’re just so good with everything!

1/2 of a fuji apple on the side.

Yes, that’s half. This apple was HUGE.

Time to get this day started.

Have a great Thursday everyone!