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7:30 Project: Race Outcome and Project Conclusions

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The 2025 Spring in the Park 5k/10K race was a hit! In spite of the all-day rain and springy cold temperatures, more than 300 women showed up to spend a morning with friends. Plenty of Stelleri athletes showed up to run and that really made my day. This year, the addition of a jewelry vendor, coffee truck, and post-race wine bar elevated the experience even more! For sure, this race will be on my annual event calendar for as long as it continues. And now, for the race outcome: did I meet my 7:30 min/mile average pace goal? No, I did not. I finished the race with an official time of 48:36, for an average of 7:50 min/mile. I'll take it! I raced as well as I could, I gave it everything I had, and I am very satisfied with my finish. So now I have to ask myself if I am actually capable of running a 7:30 pace in a 10K race. My gut instinct is that I am: I came close enough to my goal to know that, if I did things differenly, I would be able to meet this target. The question i...
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1 week left before the race!

Spring in the Park 10K is next Saturday (April 27th) - so that means I am nearly at the end of my training for this race. When I set the goal of a 7:30 min/mile average pace, I felt I had all the time in the world to get back to my fast-pace shape. Reality, however, often has other ideas. Training has been spotty. The weather these past months has been less than ideal for running outside, and I am not a treadmill person. Nonetheless, I took advantage of any opportunity to run outside to get most of my workouts done - but I have to admit that I wasn't always compliant with my training plan! One thing I did become acutely aware of, during my cold-weather running days, is that I am prone to exercise-induced asthma. Any effort in the cold leaves me gasping, forcing me to slow down or walk a bit to catch my breath. It is not pleasant, and it is definitely a barrier to performance that I didn't have to deal with in my past. I have an Albuterol inhaler, I just need to remember ...
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April already? Let's get SPEEDY!

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I left the house overdressed, of course. It's been a thing for me for the past few years. I'm less tolerant of the cold, but around here cold is part of the deal. Spring is tricky. We run the gamut from snow and ice to rain and dreariness to warm and windy, sometimes all in the same day. When I first got serious about running, decades ago, I don't remember having to grapple this much with weather conditions. My 'just do it' attitude got me out the door without thinking a whole lot about what I was running into (literally) - but I took it all in stride. (Sorry for all the unintentional running puns today!). Nowadays I tend to procrastinate. A lot. If it weren't for a race on my calendar, and a crazy (some might say ill-informed) race goal, I'm not sure if I would be this consistent in my training. Know what I found to be the leading cause of procrastination? NOT HAVING A FULL TIME DAY JOB! Seriously, when I worked full time and had to be at work in...
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Spring in the Park is 6 weeks away! Time to get serious...

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With a mere 6 weeks to the Spring in the Park 10K, it's time to get serious about training if I want to hit my goal of 7:30 min/mile average. Since early March, I'm happy to say that I have resumed my running habit, in spite of the characteristically unsettled weather this time of year. One day, I'm running in Smartwool and thick layers, on trails in the woods to stay out of the biting wind. The next day, I'm in shorts and a tank top, sweating in the sun and humidity. For these running days, all that matters is that I get out and do it. Consistency and frequency are the driving factors. Or, I should say, WERE the driving factors. Because now I have to figure out how to increase my speed. A lot. I've been increasing both my run duration and run workout frequency, so now it's time to bump up the intensity (speed). Here's what my weekly run training goals look like, in very general workout terms: Run Faster Run Longer Run Easy/Aimlessly...
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Begin Again

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I just returned from a week of riding a bike in the desert. 5 glorious ride days, 225+ miles, almost 15,000 feet of elevation gain. There was no running involved. There simply wasn't enough time. But now I'm back home, and it's time to get back to running. I opted for a shorty short run earlier this week, to ease back into the movement pattern and to begin again. Then yesterday, it was cold and windy and so I opted to run a trail in the woods, to be out of the elements a bit. "Begin again" might as well be my mantra from now on. Anytime I take a deliberate break from any activity, coming back to it feels like I'm starting anew. Especially with running. Unless I'm doing it consistently and frequently, running tends to hurt more than I would like it to. So I either stop running, or keep going. I choose to keep going. Spring in the Park is a little under 2 months from now. Time to get moving! I started supplementing with collagen on my...
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Week 2 and a bit of a setback

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So in the meantime, I'm climbing the walls...   I was all-in at the beginning of this second week of running training.  After going to the gym on Monday morning, which is my typical gym day, I met my friend Tanya for a short run at a local park. It was cold but sunny and it felt good to get out and run! My goal was simply to run a bit farther than I did previously, stretching my mileage from 3 to about 3.5 miles. And my speed seems to be coming back, too. I ran the additional 1/2 mile but it took me only about 3 minutes longer than my previous 3-mile run. So, I'm running at a training pace of around 8:30-8:40. I'll take it! The next day it was back to cycling training, since I'm preparing for a quickly-approaching week of cycling in the desert, and that desert has long miles and big climbs and I want to be ready.  But then something a bit unusual happened. During my weekly Stelleri group ride on Zwift on Wednesday night, I had some knee pain that came from out of nowher...
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Stuff I learned after my first week running workouts

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You gotta have the hair thing... Re-starting a running habit isn't that hard, I guess - but as I've only run twice this week I may be premature in labeling this a 'habit'. But I'm determined to pursue my goal of running a 10K at a 7:30 min/mile average, so I'll keep going. Those of you who know me also know that I'm an endurance coach with Stelleri Performance Training . I work with Masters women athletes who want to be competitive runners, cyclists, and multisport athletes. I also coach myself, so I have the ability to design my own running training program in an intelligent progression. By 'intelligent' I mean without hurting myself. So far, I've learned a few things about myself as a runner: My current go-to training pace is around a 9:00 min/mile. I have enough aerobic endurance to run at a steady pace for about 3 or 4 miles before it starts to feel like work.  My right hamstring might have something to say about running again. I need a new p...
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