Inspiration

I worked as a volunteer for a race for the first time today. I volunteered for the Burning River 100 mile endurance run. I was at mile 39.6 handing out food and fluids... wow, it was amazing to see all of the runners. It was really inspiring to see people who had run 40 miles (close enough!) and still had 60 to go smile and joke as they refueled and went on their way.

Running 100 miles is not something I ever aspire to do and I have enormous respect for those athletes out there who do these races.

I myself have been nervous all week for my measly (in comparison!) 15 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. The longest I have ever run up to this point in my life is 13.1 miles. I'm still nervous, but watching the runners today has definitely inspired me!

Finally. A good long run!

It was not 90 degrees this past sunday! It was in the upper 70's and it was a stepback week! For the first time during marathon training my long run felt good!

Weekly Recap:

Sunday - 9.01 miles. An excellent long run.

Saturday - 4.01 miles. It was 90 and humid.... at least it was only 4 miles.

Friday - Weights

Thursday - 4.08 mile tempo run

Wednesday - Weights

Tuesday - 4.06 miles. I skipped my weekly speed workout in favor of an easy 4 miles, which seemed to help my sore legs.

Monday - rest

Weekly Milage:

21.16 Miles

Sweat vs Rain

I've determined that no matter what time of day I run, the humidity results in me arriving home soaking wet with sweat. Last night I went for a short tempo run in the rain... well at least it was raining when I left. The rain felt soooo good! Half way through my run it stopped raining, and the sun came out, and I started to sweat. That felt bad. I definitely prefer being soaked by rain to being soaked in my own sweat. The rainy part of my run was the best i've felt on a run all month. I'm hoping for some showers on my run tonight!

I miss Colorado weather!

Ugh. This humidity stuff sucks! I managed to wake up early sunday to get my 12 miles in before the 90 degree heat set in. Despite the fact that it was somewhat cooler than 90, i'm guessing in the upper 70's, it was so FREAKING HUMID that i'm not even sure it was better than running in heat. I miss those crisp Colorado mornings, when no matter what the high for the day is going to be a morning run feels cool and refreshing. I guess I might have to wait until winter to get that refreshing cool feeling here.

Workouts this week went fairly well. I was feeling sore and burned out, so I took the week off from speedwork and skipped my saturday run in favor of a day of canoeing, which actually felt good. Next week is a stepback week, which i'm excited about. I'm feeling a little burned out.

Here's the weekly breakdown:

Sunday: 12.05 miles. It felt tough! See my above rant about the overall awfulness of humidity.

Saturday: skipped all planned workouts and went canoeing. Does that count as cross training? Who cares, it was fun!

Friday: off

Thursday: 5.01 miles

Wednesday: Weights

Tuesday: Skipped the usual speedwork in favor of an easy 4.01 miles

Monday: off

Weekly Milage: 21.03 Miles

Blog Neglect

Yes, i've been neglecting my blog these past few weeks. Truth be told i'm feeling a little burned out (already!?) with marathon training and just haven't felt like blogging. I'm not sure what exactly it is, maybe it's the combination of trying to adjust to a new city and stick to a rigid training schedule. It feels kind of pathetic because right now i'm not really doing any more running than I was for my half-training. Maybe it's because it's been so hot? (90+ degrees and muggy all last week). As much as I bitch about having to run in sleet/snow during the winter, I really like running in cold sooooo much better than running in heat. Ugh. Maybe I should have picked a spring marathon? Ah well, I need to catch up on some weekly updates for the past few weeks

7/5 - 7/11

Sunday - 10.02 miles. It wasn't as hot as last week... that's about all I can say.

Saturday - 4 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 5 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4.38. A tough speed workout (made tougher by 93 degree temps). 400, 1600, 800, 800, 1600 with 400 jogs in between.

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 23.4 Miles

6/28-7/4

Sunday - 8.04

Saturday - 4.01

Friday - off

Thursday - 5.01

Wednesday - Weights.

Tuesday - 5.78. Speed workout. I'm still the slowest one, but I ran a mile in 7:30, which is awesome for me, so i'm trying to feel good about that! 400, 800, 400, 1200, 400, 1600 (400 rest intervals in between)

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 22.84

Weekly Recap 6/21 - 6/27

I feel like I keep saying this, but it's been a busy week, so for now just a quick recap of workouts:

Sunday - 8 very hot (90 degrees) and humid miles. I managed to squeeze in my run between rainstorms. It was very gross and muggy out. I'm very glad it was only 8 miles!

Saturday - 3 miles

Friday - 4.1 miles

Thursday - Weights. I only managed to get in one of the two weight workouts... but it's still and improvement. I have a feeling this is going to be much harder now that I don't have the gym classes to motivate me to do the workouts.

Wednesday - 4 miles.

Tuesday - No workout. Mom was in town so we did some sight seeing.

Monday - off

Total Weekly Milage: 19.1 miles

New Shoes and pre-marathon training thoughts

I got a new pair of shoes! Yay! This has been long overdue, as I think my last pair was purchased in December. I took them for a little test run tonight and they feel nice and cushy. That should be all I need to be ready for marathon training, right? :-)

Marathon training starts this week. I will be using the training plan from the book Marathon Method by Tom Holland. I used the advanced half-marathon training plan for the Colfax Half and was very pleased with it. I really like how he incorporates some strength training into his plans. I enjoy doing other types of exercise, besides running, so I like the fact that I don't have to wonder how i'm going to squeeze it into a running plan. The plan includes 4 days a week of running. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I should do the beginner or intermediate marathon plan. I think i've settled on the intermediate plan. The beginner plan only goes up to 30 miles/week as the highest milage, which is what I did for my half-marathon. I feel like for a marathon I should get up a little higher. The intermediate plan may be a little bit of a stretch for me, but I figure I can just listen to my body and if I need to take a few easy days I will still at least be getting in the milage prescribed for the beginner plan.

As for goals...
I'm hesitant to really set a goal time as I have never run a marathon and really have no idea what I should be shooting for. Based on my 1/2 marathon time it seems like most predictions should put me around 4 hours and 10 minutes. Personally, I would be happy running 10 min miles, so that would put me around 4 hours and 22 minutes.

As for training my only goal is to complete as many of the training runs as possible, without injury, and to get all of my long runs in.

I'm definitely nervous about a few things. First, I have never run longer than 13.1 miles, so even some of the training runs seem a bit daunting to me. Second, I'd really like to continue to go to some of these running club runs, but the runs are tough and i'm not sure i'll be able to do it once I get into the longer distances. Last, I'm nervous that life or injury will get in the way of me completing the training.... but I guess that's something all marathoners just have to learn to deal with and I'll take it as it comes.



Weekly Recap:
I was definitely sore this week. Tuesday's track workout, followed by a running club run on wednesday left me very sore. Additionally, now that I walk or bike to and from work I think i'm putting more overall miles on my legs. I tried to take it a little easy this weekend to get ready to start training next week. I still didn't manage to get strength training in this week.

Sunday - 6 miles. Humid, but not too hot. Got to try out my new shoes.
Saturday - a very hot and humid 3 miles
Friday - off
Thursday - off
Wednesday - 4.58 miles with running club. I didn't think I was sore from tuesday's track workout until about 2.5 miles in...then it sunk in.
Tuesday - Track workout. 1000, 600 X 3 (200 rest between the 1000 and the 600, 400 rest between sets). 4.26 miles total with warmup and cooldown.
Monday - off

Total Weekly Milage: 17.84 miles.