5 easy miles

I'm home from the gym.

Did 5 easy miles at 11:19 pace, although frankly it didn't feel that easy. Last night's 11:06 miles felt a heck of a lot better than tonight's pace. My legs are tired and sore from last night's speedwork.

I think the lesson to take away from this is that I need to be more consistent with my weekday running.

Tomorrow, 6 miles of some sort. :-)

Then SRD on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. That'll give me 30 miles this week! Yay me!

sweat is good

I just got home from the gym. Did 6 miles, like this:
mile 1 - 11:19 pace
mile 2 - 11:06
mile 3 - 11:06
mile 4 - 11:06
mile 5 - 10:54
mile 6 - 10:00

The 11:06 pace felt pretty darn good. I'd like to get to where that's my easy pace and use that for my long runs. That'll get me my sub-5:00 marathon.

I'll admit to feeling a huge sense of relief right now that I'm not doing the spring marathon. This gives me a really good amount of time to deal with my speed (or lack thereof) issue. And get the mileage up there too.

Consistency is key.

I faced the facts

OK, I've faced the facts that Myrtle Beach just is not in the cards for me this spring - unless a frequent flyer plane ticket drops into my hands from the heavens. I need to not get so excited about a race that I forget to take a realistic look at the budget.

So, moving on...

I have 2 options at this point:
1.) run the Vermont City Marathon, my local race, on Memorial Day weekend. I live 5 miles away, can stay at home, no travel costs at all.
2.) stick with half-marathons through winter, spring and summer, and work on my speed and build/maintain a better mileage base until June when it's time to start ramping up the mileage for my fall marathon (NYC).

I'll think about this for a while, but in the meantime, will stick w/ my current schedule of 25-30 mpw including a long run of 12-16 miles.

motivation?

I seem to be lacking in motivation lately. I think it's the usual post-marathon letdown, except I didn't really get my marathon done, given the Chicago fiasco.

I'm signed up for a race in February (the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon), but as it turns out, I screwed up my travel for this so badly that I may have to cancel the trip completely. i.e. because it's school vacation time here that weekend, every flight out of BTV is hugely expensive and I can't make any changes to my flight. Still hoping a frequent flyer trip might show up on the airline website, fingers crossed there...

And so I'm looking for another spring race as a back-up.

In the meantime, I have a 15 miler on tap for today (assuming I'm training for Myrtle Beach). If I find another race, I'll alter the training schedule w/ a new goal date, and just keep at the 12-15 mile long run on the weekends until the new schedule catches up with me. Or I'll keep going w/ the Myrtle Beach schedule, and when I get to 16-18 milers or so, will stop there and keep that mileage until the schedule for whichever race I choose catches up with me. Who knows...

I got my 14-miler done yesterday. Thought about cutting it short around the 5-mile point and also around 10 miles but told myself to suck it up and keep running. I will admit, I did it on the treadmill - w/ sunset around 4:15 or so, I didn't want to be finishing in the dark.

Had my usual post-long-run peanut butter and banana on toast, then off to my sister's for my niece's birthday party/cake.

SRD for me today, then back at it tomorrow w/ 5 or so easy miles.

Last night's run: 6 miles - first 3 at 11:30 pace, mile 4 at 11:19 pace, mile 5 at 11:05 pace, mile 6 at 10:54. Not sure if it's the several days of no running, or the crap I've been eating recently, but it was really hard work, particularly the first 3 miles. Anyways, I got through it and felt great afterwards.

Today, I have a 5-mile steady run at 10:53 pace. think I'll have to do a warm-up mile before I can get to 10:53 pace. :-)

and I had a brekkie date w/ the guy I cancelled on last night - he's sorta growing on me.

OK, as of noon yesterday, today was supposed to be: breakfast date w/ bachelor #1 at 7:00 a.m., and dinner date with bachelor #2 at 7:00 p.m. And I was supposed to try to jam 4 miles in between work and my dinner date, and given my pace, that's not possible.

So, yesterday, I emailed, then called/left voice mail for bachelor #1 asking to reschedule brekkie to Friday or Monday and to let me know he got my email or message. And then I was going to run this a.m. But I never heard from him that he got my email or voice mail, so I ended up going to the breakfast place in case he was there (and left him voice mail on my way there that I was going to swing by just in case he was there).

So I didn't get to run this a.m. as I was hoping.

So, I've now contacted my dinner date for tonight and cancelled that (hoping to reschedule to brekkie tomorrow or dinner on Sunday) so I can get my run in tonight.

So, the day that started w/ 2 dates is now down to 0 dates - but I get to go running! :-) Seriously, I'm gleeful at that - I've been lacking in motivation lately, so the fact that I'll cancel 2 dates just so I can run is a very good sign.

Really, it all comes down to the fact that I need to date guys that run. ;-)

tug-of-war

Gosh, it's grey and dreary here today! I'm onto my 2nd coffee, and will be looking for my 3rd cup shortly thereafter! :-)

I'm doing 6 miles tonight. That's the 6 miles I should have done last night, had I not been guilted into going over to my Mom's for dinner (she wanted to hear about my brother's wedding). How old do I have to be for the catholic/italian guilt thing to not work on me? Gosh, I hope I don't sound like a total bee-otch?!? I'm happy to spend time w/ Mom, it's just that the marathon training stresses me out, and I hate missing a day.

I've done 4+ crappy marathons and to accomplish a good race, I feel like I need to be sticking to my schedule, but I'm always getting pulled in other directions. And I'm single, no kids to take care of, etc. I don't know how everyone else manages!

today's run

I'm using a mix of Hal Higdon and the NYRR Online Trainer for my Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach training, and I gotta say, I'm confused half the time about what I should be doing. :-)

I'd stick w/ the NYRR plan exclusively, because I like the way they map out my speedwork, but the way they progress the long runs so quickly (and so high - they have me going up to 23 miles - at my pace? are you kidding me?) concerns me. So I use the Hal Higdon long run progression, and the NYRR mid-week schedule.

So, 6 miles tonight, steady pace run.

Back at it!

I'm back from the gym.

I did 12 miles, not 14, but that's fine. The schedule for this week actually calls for 8, so I was doing my own thing anyways. 12 miles in 2:24:00, so a steady 12 minute mile.

Jeezum crow, I need to work on my speed!

Knees sure felt creaky. This is the furthest I've run since Chicago, so guess that would explain it. My cardio conditioning was fine, just the knees weren't loving the distance.

SRD tomorrow, then I'll do 5 or 6 on Friday **MORNING** in advance of heading to Vegas for the weekend.

Pot calling kettle black

OK, one of my running forum friends was saying yesterday he hadn't run in a week, was not interested in running, lacking MOJO, etc. He and I joke a lot about being similar runners, and have had similar issues w/ motivation or lack thereof. So, being the smart-ass that I am, I gave him a virtual kick in the pants to get out there and run.

In all reality, I could use that same kick in the pants.

I've been having some slight achilles issues, feeling slight twinges in left adductor again - nothing that would alter my gait, though. And I've been using those twinges as my excuse not to run for the last 4 days.

So I'm giving myself my own kick in the pants today, and will get out for a run if it's the last thing I do. :-)