My first brick!

Ok so yesterday was my second 5K. I didn't get as much training in for this one as I had hoped because of said hip injury, so I didn't really have high expectations for the results of this race. Plus when I walked out the door at 5:20 am it was like a wall of humidity. Not fun. But, the race turned out pretty well! I shaved over 2 minutes off my previous PR and finished in 32:09. Nothing stellar, but I was pretty pleased with it, especially given how freaking hot out it was! My goal is to get down to a sub 31 min 5K, but I don't see that happening until it's a) less hot out b) I finally buckle down and drop 10 lbs or so.

So anyway, I have the Tri Girl triathlon coming up next weekend, so my friend, Erin Trail, convinced me I needed to do at least one brick before the race so I'd have a better idea of what to expect. We met up at Terry Hershey park at Dairy Ashford, at about 7 am and rode all the way out 10.5 miles to near the shooting range off of 1093 in George Bush Park. We decided to turn around a bit early and do some speed work. So, we did 4 repetitions of 3 min hard, 2 min easy, hard being keeping our heart rates in zone 4 (around 170 bpm). That kicked my ass. Hahaha. Then we went back to the cars, loaded up our bikes and headed out for our run. The plan was 30 min. I kept up, going at about a 10:55 ish pace for 20 min, and then finally needed to walk a bit. In total I think I walked about 4 min of the 30 min session, which I was pretty pleased with, considering the ride before, and it being my first brick.

All in all I feel completely awesome right now. I took a quick ice bath, and then a nice shower, and I feel surprisingly relaxed. I think I may just need a nap today!

Let the training begin!

Since I recently injured my hip in my initial half-marathon trainings, after taking over a week of a break from physical activity, I have decided that today is my first official day of training. And my training plan will continue through January 30, if I "win" the lottery for the Houston Marathon. I recently read a book called Marathoning for Mortals. I have based my 6 month training plan as a combination of both the "run a half marathon" and "run a full marathon" plans in this book. So, today was 30 minutes of cross training, for which I chose to do some MTV Power Yoga. Tomorrow is a rest day, and then Thursday will be my first run since last Monday. So ready to run again!