On the right path to reaching my goals!

Good things are happening!

I have really been struggling to run enough miles since I started back up after Goofy and being sick. Granted I have been weight training, and that has benefited me immensely, but I was always questioning how many miles, how fast, how often I should be running.

Training for 13 half marathons is not as cut and dry as training for one half 3 months out or even a marathon. You pretty much have a set goal, pick a plan and stick with it. Doing 2 half’s every month plus the goal to be quicker really throws a wrench in things and muddies the water.

In addition, trying to find the right balance to avoid injury and trying to get faster, to beat my time goal of sub2 that I have set for myself to achieve sometime end of spring beginning of summer, has been hard. Also, the weightlifting was leaving me too sore to run at times.

Ugh, I was confused and really starting to get stressed, but no longer!

My friend, and chiropractor, used a running coach to train her for the 2012 Chicago Marathon with great success and she started using him again for the 2013 Detroit Marathon. By chance, I happened to meet him last Wednesday and we started discussing my goals.

Before I knew it, I was sending him gobs of running data as well as my race schedule. Not missing a beat, he quickly caught on to the fact that I enjoy traveling over long weekends as long as I can run. Now, we are working together to build a solid base as I took off lots of time after Goofy from being ill and um, only ran 31 miles before this week since then… Yea.

Having a coach has really reduced my stress, he checks in with me daily and provides a workout for the next day based on how I am feeling. It has been a bit of rough going this first week as I was dealing with some hip pain that was radiating down my right leg.

Slow running, stretching, ice and some KT Tape later, I’m feeling better and kind of enjoyed the 45 minute “reverse split” run he had me run tonight on my treadmill.

Note the new kicks? Yep, time to get rid of my distance shoes so I am #runhappy in my new Brooks Glycerin10.  LOVE them!  The treadmill run was my first run in them and they were amazing!

I was also selected by Mamavation to be part of the Omron Fitness #IHeartOmron 5K challenge along with 24 other participants! As part of this challenge I received an Omron HR-500U Wrist Based Heart Rate monitor.

Yes, you read that right! The heart rate monitor is strap-less and reads your heart rate off of your wrist alone! You may have already seen a few of my Tweets or Instagram photos of this cool tech tool!

Mamavation also provided us with an optional training plan to follow. I am not going to follow the training plan exactly, as it is not what I need fitness wise right now to run faster, but it is a great plan and you can check it out here. The point is to add in some high intensity interval training and also do some workouts in different heart rate zones to achieve your goals. I have lots more to learn about the heart rate zones too!

The challenge is to run a faster 5K by training smarter using your heart rate and it ends with a Virtual 5K on March 30th! Coming off my PR of 26:52 last weekend, I cannot wait to see what I can do in three weeks now that I have a running coach guiding me as well!
I have the Shamrock and Roll 10K planned with the family this weekend, followed by a much-needed massage. Any fun St. Patrick’s Day races coming up for anyone as well?

Disclamer: This post is sponsored Omron Fitness as a collaboration with Bookieboo Blogging Network and Mamavation – a community dedicated to weight loss for women and obesity prevention for families. I was provided with product and compensation for my time and honest opinions. Always check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program. RunFastMama, Bookieboo LLC, their affiliates/contractors assume no responsibility for any injuries or issues as a result of your following any exercises mentioned on this blog www.runfastmama.com or linked to or from this blog.

Tagged as: Brooks, Coach, Goals, Omron, training