No Earbuds Required

Could I run a 5K on the treadmill without intervals? Apparently, the answer to that question is yes, yes I can. I’ve had my ups and downs in my running life this year, but I knew I had been making progress. This morning, I started with a walk for a few minutes and then turned the treadmill up to a steady jog pace. I decided on a whim to watch The Great British Baking Show and see just how long I could ignore the built-in run/walk alerts on my Garmin. As I approached three miles, I became determined to keep going until that 5K mark. Wow! Comparing today’s stats to July 2015 really opened my eyes. I really have gotten better at this! Today: 3.23 miles, 41:44, average pace 12:56/mile. Average HR 149, average cadence 159 SPM.

5: This is one that blew my mind at first. The people who go running don’t run the whole time???  4:  Just because a pair/style/brand of running shoes works for you one year, it doesn’t mean that it will the next.  I figured this out with expensive consequences in Year 2 when the ASICS I had loved previously were now too narrow for my feet in the new year’s model. There’s no substitute for an in-store fitting! 3: Your local massage therapist may be able to take your Flex Spending Account as payment! I discovered that Massage Envy does this and bought myself a membership. Self-care is so important and I care for myself by running. Massage makes it all better. 2: You don’t have to have a lot of fancy gear to run, but the right things can sure help a lot! I love my Garmin Vivoactive HR. It’s discounted now because Garmin has come out with a newer model, but I’ve had mine for over a year now and it’s still working awesomely well. It tracks daily acti...

I am loving reading these old posts. Do you want to know how this story ends? It hasn’t ended yet, actually. I finished my first season with Pearland Area Road Runners with my first half marathon, the Houston Aramco Half in January 2016. I clocked in at just over 3 hours, 22 minutes (the goal being just to finish.) Season 2 involved two HM races in poor conditions: the Houston Half in Oct 2016, also known as “one of the most miserable races ever” with heat in the low 80s, and the Aramco Half in 2017 with highs in the mid 70s and 65 percent humidity. Personal records were set despite dealing with injuries throughout the season. I got my best time down to 3:04. This year had a lot of work things that were going on that were kind of unusual as well, with a major performance for my choir and my husband starting a new job. Season 3 started off strong with training and the early work I did last year paid off big with finally breaking the 3 hr mark in January 2018 at a very, very cold ...