So the Garmin watch didn't come back with me from KY. It wasn't in my backpack or in my laptop case. Arrggghhhh! I had a good idea of a way to make 22 miles - I think I actually did 22.2 which looks cooler, but I don't know what my time was. I'm one of those odd individuals who has no watch but the Garmin. It felt like my typical 7:50 pace.
When I trained for my last marathon the 22 mile run I did absolutely hammered me. I was a mess. I didn't feel like a mess today and that was totally encouraging. Not that it was like laying on a hammock drinking strawberry lemonade, but I felt like I could have kept going when it all came to an end.
My husband has talked me into putting the move to KY off until I've run the marathon. I've worked hard to this point, I want to have another kid soon which puts off any other marathon for a year or two, and heck, I'm already signed up. So I'm trying to figure out what I can realistically expect out of myself in a month and a half and I'm thinking a 3:10 could be in the works - just maybe, perhaps, possibly. Yeah, I don't even like to say that out loud.
A TM day. Blah. I was looking at the distance every .1 miles after just .5 miles. I tried to get myself thinking about the house and what I'd like to do inside and outside but I had already been thinking those thoughts all day making them too stale to entice my mind away. I probably need to start memorizing something - like presidents or the battles of the Napoleonic Wars or something that takes lots of power of recall. Maybe that would make the time pass. Anyhow - I think it was probably a 7:50 pace or something. I bounced the pace around a little bit just to divert myself. I'm feeling a bit sore in all the same places that I have over the last couple of weeks. I'll try to stretch out well tonight.
Without a watch this is all guesses, but I think I went close to 10 today. I ran from my sister-in-law's house so I'm not as sure on mileage from there. My legs still feel pretty junky today. It was hard to make myself want to do anything, but when I hit my 1 mile repeat start I told myself to just take my pace up a little bit. I usually stop to stretch and get mentally ready when I do my 1 mile repeats, but it was best just to run through this morning. By the second mile repeat I was much more focused and felt like I was challenging myself. I just did 4x1 mile today. I considered tagging on a couple of 800s but my legs were really done.
Through my whole warm-up I was in negative thought mode what with my legs feeling bad and knowing that there was serious flooding in the area where Dan and I just bought a house that I am currently fifteen hundred miles away from. But doing those mile repeats really put me in a better place. I came up with a plan of what I need to do and life feels more sunshiny. Man, I don't enjoy those plunges of despair. Thank goodness for running.
I had a meeting regarding our move up at Hill Air Force Base this morning so I left the kids with family and went up. The meeting lasted all of 10 minutes so after that I decided to do a run. It was nice to be running somewhere new - even though it was pretty homely surroundings. My husband is guessing that my leg problems are coming from having shoes that are too old...and full of holes...and stinky. So I put some shoes on that I didn't use as thoroughly as I have used these for my run today. I noticed the cushiony difference. I think I'm going to have to find a way to get myself to a shoe store and hope for some good behavior from my groupies - they follow me everywhere.
I drove out to Colorado yesterday for one last visit with my parents before they head to Europe for the year. My Dad took a temporary job out there that will give them quite the bang for their working-life finale. Pretty exciting, huh? I had all sorts of plans of going to visit them and touring all over the continent myself - and then I remembered I had three kids - not one of them is four yet. I would have loved you well Europe. I promise.
1 1/2 mile warm-up and cool-down, 5 mile tempo run. Still no watch but I imagine I was somewhere in the 6:45-50s. I started out pretty hard and faded at the end - and by end I definitely mean from the mid-way mark on. It was nice to know what too hard feels like.
I was hoping to do a 20 mile run tomorrow but my sister who lives in Colorado called tonight on her way to the ER possibly for surgery. My parents went up to stay with her kids tonight. That leaves me babysitter-less for tomorrow. Am I concerned for my sister? YES! And yet I feel bad for me...pathetic. Oh obsession.
My sister ended up being ok. I got my run in Saturday afternoon. I did a point-to-point run instead of a loop. It was a gradual gain in elevation which my legs more than my eyes could bear testimony to. I also didn't find water along my route until the 16 mile mark. That just about killed me. It was the most painful run of this training cycle. It was good for me mentally to have pushed through to the end, but, wow...next time I'll be a better girl scout and get myself prepared.
I have been surprised at how little I can feel the run I did on Saturday. There was some slight soreness that I felt for the first half mile but it got worked out quickly. Thank goodness. I was afraid I'd be too laid up to work hard this week.
The first half of this run was against the wind and uphill. That's just the way I like a run. That way I can finish rolling downhill, getting hustled forward by the wind, and feeling like the fastest person in the world. I love a peaceful, happy feeling.
2.15 warm-up, 1.9 cool-down, 1mile - 2x800 - 4x400 - 2x800 - 1mile, .25 between each
So the idea of this one was to have some intervals where I ran faster than usual. But I was sick. I spent most of the time running for the nearest bathroom (which this fantastic trail has lots of! love it!). Also my legs felt mostly dead (which, on the sunny-side, is partly alive) most of the time. This was another workout that I was just glad to make it through.
Easy miles done in the morning. I tried to sneak out without waking my kids up this morning. My baby woke up at 4:30am and then again at 5:15am so I decided to just get up instead of waiting for my 5:45 alarm. I was all ready to go run when my alarm that I forgot to turn off went off downstairs with the kids. My oldest and my baby woke right up and weren't about to go back to sleep again. Luckily my parents are troopers and really good at turning on a movie so the boys were ok, I was able to run, and my parents still made it to work on time.
It was another dead-leg day. Its starting to get a little old. I still want to do a long run again on Saturday, but I might make it my last before the marathon that will be 4 weeks later. I'm kind of nervous to cut it off so early - but since my legs just aren't healthy I'm probably going to have to do it.
My legs were doing better. I wasn't really excited about running fast until I was 2 miles into my tempo and I finally gave in to the fact that moving felt good. It was another nice morning by the river - lots of morning birds - a whole load of pelicans were hanging out in a lake with crazy borders. I liked it.
Things went much better this Saturday. I made sure I had water all along the way - and whatayaknow - my body didn't seize up on me. My testimony of water has made substantial gains in the last couple of weeks.
Easy miles in the late evening and I have to run in the early morning tomorrow. Hopefully that all goes ok. I was looking over how I trained for my last marathon earlier today to see how I did the taper. And it completely made me freak out. It looks like I trained much harder and better last time.
Anyhow...I'm trying to stomp out the panic and focus on what I can do now. I was going to start pulling back in my training this week and not do any more long runs but I've changed my mind. I'm going to try to keep my miles up for a couple of more weeks. We'll see how it goes and what my legs think.
2 mile warm-up and cool-down, 6x800 hills (400 up, 400 down) with 400 easy between. 2x800 flat with 400 between.
Again, without a watch I'm not positive about distances. I think the hill might have been .3 up - but regardless I did somewhere between 10 and 11 I think. My legs are feeling a little better all the time. Going faster or working hard helps - as much as I dread doing either before the workout starts. Speed/strength workouts are also helping me over a feeling of boredom that is starting to creep into my training too.
It felt like it took me the whole 4x1 mile set to warm-up and then the 2x800 felt a little faster on my legs. I'm a bit sore now that it has been a couple of hours. I'll run 20 on Saturday and then I'll do the same speed work next week that I did this week with a lower Saturday run. I'll use the last couple of weeks before the marathon to really bring miles down and hopefully I'll feel more quick in the legs.
I woke up early to having the runs instead of doing a run. I wanted to do my last 20 miler but I was skunked. It was a busy day with not a lot of flexibility to add a run later, but I did manage to sneak in 10. Who knows, maybe its a good thing that I couldn't run 20 - maybe it was my bowels giving my legs just what they needed.
Windy, hilly miles - really took me back to AZ except I'm in a big city visiting my sister so there were lots more annoying stops for stop-lights. One plus about the army - it mostly takes you to out-of-the-way places where stop-lights are kind of exotic.
With my last two runs being significantly hilly, I figured I was good to let go of my hill workout and do a tempo run instead. Next time I train for something I want to work on knowing my pace.
Just when I thought I was down to my last couple of weeks of training, my bro-in-law decides to lay down the challenge of a family half marathon in August.
1.75 warm-up and cool-down, 4x1 mile, 2x 800 with 400 rest between
There is a beautiful little spot along the trail I ran that some gardeners have put some elbow grease into. They have different beds - some with flowers - some with vegetables, some with hills, some flat, some with little colorful bedsteads for plants with runners to cling to. I have admired it on every run I've done the past few weeks and today I finally got to meet one of the gardeners. I think all master gardeners must be friendly, down-to-earth folks. To have enough patience to weed and dig and plant and replant - to know that nature unendingly has an another challenge for you - undoubtedly keeps a person humble. Anyhow - it was the highlight of the day to talk to a nice lady who made something beautiful just because she could.
As far as the running goes - that was the last really scary speed work-out for me for the next couple of weeks. Its nice to have it over with.
I think I did the miles too fast. I didn't mean to except I saw a guy running ahead of me that I thought shouldn't be running faster than me, so then I had to pass him. And then once I passed him I had to keep ahead of him. When I told Dan about it he laughed to think the poor guy had no idea he had just been beaten.
I've really got to start treating my body better this next couple of weeks so I have something to give at the marathon. My goal is to stretch every night and to get to bed by 10pm. Now I've said it publicly so I have to do it!
Easy miles done in the evening because that's when they could be done. My 88 year old grandma had us over for lunch and games at the park today. She had a whole box of fun things for the kids - her energy is phenomenal. I want to be just like her some day.