Sticky, Slimy, Sweaty

I slept in today and was in somewhat of a sloth mode this morning. But when I opened up the fridge to get milk for my coffee, I stared my half marathon training plan in the face. I had skipped a day yesterday to get myself on track for what I wanted my running days to be (at least that's what I tell myself. In reality, I was lazy and it was the 4th of July...). Therefore I knew I needed to run today. 

I mentally sighed and grumbled as I read " Week 1: Thursday: 25 minutes"

Well, it's the shortest time on the entire training plan....so I would be REALLY stupid to try and skip it. 

As I got dressed and ready to head out, I realized it was 10:30 or so and the Florida sun was beaming down...and the humidity was high. Typical. But what can ya do? I had to go out...

So I broke down my 25 minutes as such: 

5 min warm up walk

7 repeats of 1:1 run/walk ratio with 1 extra minute of running

5 min cool down. 

I had it timed down to a tee (including my turn around point). So that part felt good

I chose the 1:1 ratio today because of the heat. I figure I am (or should be) able to go 1:30 or 2:00 running to 1:00 walking but with the heat today I didn't dare push it. 

Overall I felt pretty good running...it's just that the heat and humidity made me feel like I was going to pass out or die (even with a hat and water). There are lots of trees along the basic out and back route I use by the house...problem was that the angle of the sun at 10:30 in the morning doesnt throw the shade onto the sidewalk at all...except for a sporadic shadow here or there. So I had the sun on me the vast majority of the time...not fun. 

But I did it...and isn't that what counts?

Tomorrow I am supposed to go for a nice long, slow walk...works for me! Saturday is my first LSD of 3 miles...easily doable. 

Tweaks I want to make for next week: 

- use the 30 minutes on the training plan for my actual run/walking and tack the warm up and cool down on at either end to make for a 40 minute workout rather than 30

OR 

- get back into the couch to 5k workouts on the 30 minute days (the workouts are about 30 minutes or so) to build my running endurance back up. 

I might go with the first tweak for a couple of weeks (along with upping the run/walk ratio) and see how I do before going with the second tweak. It's nice that this plan just tells you time...it doesnt tell you distance...

I figure the longest I will get to in 30 minutes or so is 2.5-3 miles which is fine. The LSDs on Saturdays are where I will do a distance workout rather than time.