Friday Five - my plans for Spring running

This has seemed like a long week for some reason.  But it's finally Friday!  Of course, that means that it's time for the Friday Five link up with Mar, Cynthia and Courtney.  The theme for this week is Spring.  I am so ready for Spring, especially given the fact that we have snow again today!  I am ready for it to go away.

The view outside my window right now.

But looking on to more positive things, here are some plans I have for Spring running.

1.  No plan!  I had an early Spring half and my Fall half is toward the later side of the season, so I don't officially start training for it in the summer.  I'm looking forward to running but not being in training for a specific race.

2.  More outside running - I kind of gave up toward the end of Winter and did most of my runs indoor on the treadmill.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to running outdoors and really experiencing the Spring, which is beautiful in this area.

Spring run from last year with a detour for Cherry Blossoms in Bethesda

 3.  Running with friends - Most of my local friends that run do shorter distances.  Now that I'm not specifically training for a half, I'm planning on more weekend runs with friends for 6-7 miles.

Yay for friends that can share runs!

4. Try to get faster - while I don't have any distance races I currently need to train for, I would like to work a little bit more on speed and try to get a little faster.  I'm not sure how to do that though.  Any tips? I still have access to a track through MCRRC since they have an open track workout on Wednesday evenings so I plan on track work.  And I'm going to work on eliminating/reducing walking breaks from my 5k runs so I can run those straight out.

5.  5ks and 10ks - I'm planning to do Ben's Run 5k again in April as it was one of my favorite races from last year.  And my dad will most likely be in town that weekend so he will also do that one with me, which will be great.  That same weekend, I'm planning on running the Pike's Peak 10k.  I've heard great things about this race and I can't wait to experience it myself.  It's supposedly a great one for a 10k PR so I'm going to go for it on that one. My 5k PR is from the Semper Fi 5k last May and I'm planning to run that one again this year as well so hoping for a PR there as well.

80's run 5k my dad and I did together last year

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the last snow of the season and that we can move on to all the great things about Spring that we're looking forward to!  I'm volunteering at the MCRRC Piece of Cake races this weekend (registration) and hopefully also running the 5k so I hope it's at least warmer by Sunday.  Any specific things you're looking forward to or tips on speed work when I'm not following a training plan?