Half training...week 5

So I've decided to do these posts weekly just so I can have them for reference later...

Week five went great! Since I knew I was going to attempt a 10 miler on Saturday, I took my weekly runs down just a little and that worked out great!

Mon: 5 miles - treadmill
Tues: Cross train - 1 hour
Wed: 5 miles - road
Thurs: 5 miles - treadmill, 45 mins cross training  (arms and abs only)
Fri: Rest
Sat: 10 miles - road
Sun: Cross training 45 mins (arms and abs only)
Week 5 total miles - 25

Again, no mid-week track workout since the track remains unavailable. Football season should be ending soon, so I should be able to hit the track once during the week again. This past Wednesday I ending up on the road where I usually run my Saturday runs. That's all well and good, but it's fairly hilly.

Treadmill runs are kind of "meh" to me right now, but I just don't have the time to get out on the road four days a week, so it is what it is. One upside to running on the treadmill (besides being indoors!) is that the gym has WiFi. I like to take advantage and either listen to Pandora or stream a show on my Kindle. I LOVE Pandora, and its work-out stations are usually right-on, but this past week it kind of blew my mind by playing, "Baby Got Back." Yeah, no... Unfortunately I was already out of skips and running too fast to switch stations, so I just stuck it out!

Giving Sir Mix-A-Lot the side eye. Yes, that's a gym selfie. Something about those mirrors makes it hard to resist!!

I won't say that I was dreading that ten mile run on Saturday, but I was definitely a little leery of it. I've run ten miles before, this past March, but it was on the treadmill. We've been having a cold snap, like most of the country, and when I woke up and got ready to go out Saturday morning, it was a toasty 33 degrees! Instead of staying inside in the warmth and dreading it, I got out the door as soon as finished my breakfast. (My go-to breakfast before a long run is an egg, whole wheat toast or an English muffin, and coffee!) I had dressed warmly, long running tights, a tank, arm-warmers, and another long-sleeved shirt on top of that. When I got outside and realized how sunny it was already, I ditched my headband to keep my ears warm and my gloves. After a half mile, I pulled off my arm warmers and tucked them in my waistband. It's so hard to get started when it's cold, but you warm up so fast!

Anyway, since this was first double-digit run, I brought along a GU to try out. (It was this kind, in case you're wondering.) I started to feel a little tired at mile five, so I took it out then and just ate a little bit at a time. Upside, it wasn't nearly as gross as I thought, and I felt like it gave me some extra energy. I was nervous about it not sitting well with my stomach, so I ate it very slowly. It was probably mile seven by the time I finished it. My only complaint about the GU as opposed to the Sport Beans I'd already tried, is that it's kind of messy! When I finished I kind of rolled up the wrapper and tried to stuff it back in my arm pocket and ended up getting sticky junk all over it. I had to wash everything that was in there when I got home.

As I've said may times, it's pretty hilly here, so to save my legs I only ran eight miles on the road and did the last two on the track. I stopped at the car for about a minute to get some water and take off my long-sleeved shirt. Boy did that track feel flat and smooth after running on hills! (Gradual hills, but still hills!)

Done!

So, here are my observations five weeks in to half training. It's going great! I may totally bonk at some point, but so far so good. Also, I'm getting faster. I don't really know how that's possible but I'm not complaining. I plan on doing more or less the same thing this week before bumping up my mileage again next week. I have a feeling I might be hitting the treadmill a lot this week since it's cold again. Also, next week we're going out of town for Thanksgiving so it will be interesting to see how that factors into my training.

Yeah, I said I was going to take this one slow. I'm not so good at that!