I’m back, Baby!

For about a week and a half now, I‘ve been running home doing 5/5 intervals (5 min walking/5 min running, repeat).  Last week, I ran/walked home twice with a walking day in between, and this week I’m going to try walk/running three times.  So far, I feel great.  The run intervals are challenging, but they don’t feel destructive.  I get home feeling zen, rather than destroyed, the way I thought I would feel.  I also thought my pace would be much slower, but it’s pretty close to what it was before I quit in 2012.  By the time the marathon rolls around, I definitely won’t be in the same corral as the fastest runners I know, but I won’t be in the last one either :).  Right now, I feel like a 5 hour marathon is an easily attainable goal, one that I might very well surpass. 

What was my motivation?

As I mentioned last time, I’ve been leading the TNT walk team this season for a small group training for the San Diego Half Marathon on the 1st of June.  A week after my last post, at the next GTS,  there were only two of us in attendance.  The other walker is actually (for medical reasons) a walker in the winter and a run/walker in the summer.  As we were leaving, she let me know that she would be doing run/walk intervals that day, as prescribed by her doctor.  So, since there we no other walkers, and since I was planning on integrating run/walk intervals into my training anyway, I decided to run with her.  Our goal, according to our training schedule, was to walk from the NDG Sports Complex to the Lachine canal and back, and her personal goal was nine 5/1 intervals (5 min running/1 min walking).  So we started with the intervals, which basically got us half the distance, and then we walked back.  And how did it feel?  It felt great!  We even got some cheers and thumbs up when some TNT runners spotted us running along the canal  :)

Should you care to inject a little jet fuel into my training, you could visit my TNT fundraising page.  Any donation, however small, helps us fight the good fight and kick cancer’s ass!