It’s Wednesday, which means tomorrow is Thursday and then Friday Friday gotta get down on Friday! Oh Rebecka Black. I wish you’d come out with an other song for me to make fun of. I so enjoyed the first one. Now that you’re super impressed by my knowledge of the days of the week, let’s talk about something slightly more exciting. Like how yesterday was the BEST SPIN CLASS EVER!!!! Why?? Well, they accidentally over filled the class and so Linda chose not to ride so someone could have her bike. This meant she had the entire hour to walk around checking our gears and our pace. Some people may not prefer this, but in case you didn’t notice, I have teacher’s pet syndrome. I want nothing more than the approval from my teacher and since usually I am the teacher, I have to get this in my work out classes. And also I make Steve constantly give me praise. Seriously, even in college I hung my papers up on the refrigerator. Remember that Heather? Our fridge was covered in theatre history exams.

Anyway, Linda came over to me a few times and didn’t tell me to pedal faster and didn’t adjust my gear like she did to some people which I took as a sign that I was at the right place. Then we were on the biggest hill of the class and I was dripping sweat and pedaling along at gear 20 when she came over, looked at my display and told me “GOOD JOB!!!!!” Actually I believe her exact words were “Good girl” kind of like I’m a dog, but I’m totally fine with that. In fact my ballet teacher used to say that all the time, and I always found it cute and not patronizing like she found me to be a puppy. This dubbed Tuesday April 3rd 2012 as best spin class ever.

You know what’s weird? Writing about my training these days. I felt like when I was training for PF Chang’s everything was so new and every long run was worthy of a recap and I had so many thoughts and so much to say. Now that I’ve run 2 half marathons, talking about how I ran 10 miles doesn’t seem all that exciting. You know what I am super pumped about though? Speed work!!

Without a doubt, my favorite part of this new training plan. Maybe I’m not breaking any PDRs right now, but speed training is super new to me and I am absolutely loving following a real training plan. I mean I know that Smart Coach doesn’t actually care if I do his/her/it’s work outs, but it makes me feel accountable, and I am really appreciating having the speed goals set out for me ahead of time. The question I kept asking all my smart runner friends (or smart runners that I think are really cool and want them to be my friend) is

“But how fast do I goooo????”

I honestly had no idea. Well Smart Coach is…smart. He knows. Actually, I think she’s a woman. Because she’s so smart. She knows 😉 Today she told me to run 5 miles including 1 mile warm up, 3 miles @ 9:13, and a 1 mile cool down. I woke up, avoided going outside because I was not excited about going for this run, and sure I was going to suck. Way to stay positive, Ari. Then I started and felt AWESOME. My warm up felt light and I was really enjoying being outside and running. I started my first tempo mile, looked down at my garmin to see an 8:37 pace flash up. COOL! But definitely not sustainable, so I chilled out a little and backed off and my tempo miles ended up looking like this

9:11

9:01

8:47!!

So I’m so serious about this no cheating/pausing business that I even ran around a parking lot during my first tempo mile so I wouldn’t have to stop. But then I got pissed in the last one because I had to stop and use the bathroom, and I know that little breather made my last mile faster, so while I was super excited about it, I don’t feel like that last one is completely legit, and I’m annoyed because I didn’t want to stop. Whatev, I still killed my tempo goal and ended on total runners high!

It’s different to feel that kind of excitement and not have it be after a long run. It’s weird to say “I had the most awesome 5 mile run today!!!” But with the slow and steady approach to long runs (that I probably should have followed more closely all along), I find then nice, but less exciting and fulfilling if that makes sense. I mean, I know they need to get done, but running faster? Now that is something that makes me excited! Meeting and exceeding goals? Sign me up!

I seriously can’t wait to run an other race and see what I can do! Pat’s Run is coming up which is 4.2 miles. I *think* if I really push and run with Speedy Gonzales, I can run with a sub 9 min/mi average. That’s the goal.

Ohhh, and lastly, last night I had dinner with some fabulous AZ Blogger ladies, and somehow ended the night with only a lame picture of my salad. Sad. It was really nice to see Emily and Estela again, and to finally meet Ali! As usual, I carpooled with Nicole, and made her late. I suck. After dinner, Nicole and I grabbed fro yo (Umm, I think if neither of us felt embarrassed about it, we would end up meeting for fro yo about twice a day) and sat and chatted for a while (naturally). Man you get the two of us Chatty Kathys together and we could probably talk for a week straight! By the waaaayyyy, Monday is Nicole’s birthday in case you wanted to head over to her blog and wish her a happy birthday, or by her a BMW.

I’m off to work. Have a fabulous day everyone!!

What motivates you when it comes to work outs/training plans?? What part makes you the most excited?