Running is my drug

RunnersKitchen — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:08:58 +0000

C-r-a-n-k-y. That’s what I was last night. In fact, that’s how I’ve been feeling all week. On Monday I headed straight home after work and climbed in bed with a jar of nutella and a book. It felt good to take a rest day, but it did nothing for my bad mood. I was feeling lethargic and blah yesterday…definitely not in the mood for a track workout. I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again – I’m probably only motivated and excited to run about 50% of the time. The other half of the time I really have to convince and cajole myself. But you know what? It always makes me feel better. As Ke$ha would say: Running is my drug. It’s a natural anti-depressant!

As I warmed up to the East River Track (about ~2 miles), I gave myself a little pep talk. I think at points I was actually talking to myself aloud. Luckily, I blended in with all the other crazy New Yorkers talking to themselves.

When Coach described this interval workout, it sounded h-a-r-d. I’m not going to lie – just hearing about what we were in store for made me want to lie down in the grass and take a nap. Fortunately, I did not do that.

Yesterday’s assignment was a ladder workout:

400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m @5k pace with 200m recovery (400m recovery after the 1000m)
800m, 600m, 400m @3K pace with 200m recovery

And here’s how it went down -

Activity	Reps	Distance	Duration	Pace
Warm Up	1 x	2.14 mi	00:19:00	8:52 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	400 meters	00:01:34	6:18 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	600 meters	00:02:24	6:26 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	800 meters	00:03:09	6:20 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	1000 meters	00:03:55	6:18 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	800 meters	00:03:04	6:10 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	600 meters	00:02:17	6:07 min/mi
Intervals	1 x	400 meters	00:01:24	5:37 min/mi
Recovery Run	1 x	1 miles	00:12:00	12:00 min/mi
Cool Down	1 x	3 miles	00:25:00	8:20 min/mi

I was pretty pleased with this workout. I ended up leading my group for most of the intervals and that helped me to focus on the pace. I was also able to get faster for the second half of the workout – hooray! Afterwards I was so much happier – I practically skipped out of the track and on to my cool-down.

Even better than a successful track workout?? Ice cream with the team! We stopped at Lula’s Sweet Apothacary on E. 6th St and since I didn’t have a camera with my sweaty-self, please accept this stand in (from the last time I went):

Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream (made with cashew milk)!

Ice cream is delicious, but of course I needed some additional fuel when I got home -

Wasa crackers topped with nutella and sliced banana and a bowl of strawberries with Greek yogurt.

And then I attacked the peanut butter jar as I packed my breakfast and lunch for the next day. Ehhh, no veggies in sight. Good thing I had a salad for lunch!

The latest from True/Slant – Pickles: Your new summer training buddy.

From the NY Times: Exercise and its role in burning body fat, regulating blood sugar, and controlling cholesterol levels.

Question: If you there was a pill you could take to stay trim and be healthy, would you still work out?

The Runner's Kitchen » peanut butter

Running is my drug