Road to Boston

I'm doing Hal Higdon's Advanced I marathon training so on tap for today was 4x800.  I gave Yasso 800's a shot - - running 800 in 3:50 with a slow 400 in between each 800.  Unfortunately, I was stuck doing these on my dreadmill.  Not sure how that impacts the workout, but it is pouring here, AND it is hard to get on a track midday because school is still in session.  The next time these come around on my training schedule, I'm hopeful to do them on a track . . .I wonder if that will be harder or easier.

The good news was the the 800's felt like work, but not as hard as I expected.  My goal is to qualify for Boston sometime in the next couple of years, but of course I'd love it to be on my next marathon.  I'm currently training for the Wineglass Marathon in October!  Anyone else planning to run that one??

Today was my rest day for this week.  I'm always ambivalent about rest days.  I love them the day before the actual rest day.  I anticipate with great delight the idea of having the day off and being able to get more things done.  And then the rest day comes, and I feel antsy.

A lot has happened in the last 24 hours though.  I've decided to take the advice of the awesome, experienced runners here and just work on ramping up the mileage and hope that takes me where I want to go in the marathon.  I will confess to a slight fear that if I don't practice speed, how will I go fast?  But on the flip side, I think I'd be a bit of a moron to ignore these folks who have clearly found the key to running success in a way that I haven't even begun to touch.

So tomorrow, 6 miles.  And then Sunday's have been my long running days, so I'll do something longer, and then steady as she goes 6's  - - and then I'll see how that feels. 

Must admit that I felt great this morning.   It was raining - - not usually a plus for me - - and I decided to do a hilly 6 mile course that I haven't done in a while.  My average pace was 8:55 - - sad to say, but for me - - that's pretty fast :) for a regular 'ol run.  But I felt really good and refreshed after taking yesterday off.

So starting off the day wet and cheerful. 

 Course: Mendon Ponds 6 mi loop; counterclockwise 

Technically today is my long run, but since it was a "step back" week, it wasn't very long!  I've decided to stick with Hal Higdon's advanced plan for the long runs only and then take everyone elses' advice (from here) about upping the mileage during the week.  So today was the shortest long run ever!  It's all upward from here.

That being said, I did a rolling hills loop with one true climb at the end and felt very good with average pace of 9:06.  Again, for me, this is a nice solid pace, and I felt strong the whole way.

It's great that this was a shorter long run because I think I want to move my long runs to a weekday - - so now I can move my next long run to Friday without incident.   That will be a 13 miler.

 It probably helps that this is the first normal weather I've run in for months.   Where I live, the weather bites.  It's either freezing or super windy or hot/humid (though more rarely that).  Mostly freezing. Today was perfect for me.  70's with a very light drizzle.  I was totally comfortable.  

Yesterday, my miles were slower and flatter.  I did the first four at a nice clip, but then I met up with a friend who hasn't been running and did two slower ones with her.  Average was 9:20.

Then, I tried yoga for THE VERY FIRST TIME!!  It's a lot harder than it looks.  And I'm definitely sore this morning.  I think I liked it.  I'm going to try it a few more times to see if it grows on me . . .lol . . .

12:00 min/mi pace on a very hilly trail.  We counted the number of hills once and there were 29 . . lol . . .and some of them are pretty steep and long.  Still I'm always surprised at how slow I run trails.  There's definitely a fear factor.  I'm worried I'll fall on the downhills so I'm pretty careful.    I've done it before so I know how possible it really is ;).

A nice 6 miler today.  Felt very good.  Ran 9:08 min/mile.  I am surprised that I'm increasingly comfortable at this faster speed.  I used to be really wedded to 10:00 min/mi.  For ages.  Now I feel more like I am running and less like I am jogging.  I am a little concerned because I think it was the spring training speedwork I did that helped my speed, and now I'm not doing that speedwork . . .but I just tell myself that the endurance building is important too.

Today was my long run, and I can't say it was easy, but overall it went well.  My average pace was 9:16 - - again, very good for me. And I really was just "running the way I felt" - - not pushing it.   I actually felt great until the last mile which was up a very long hill, and it started to get a lot hotter.  Also, I thought I had mapped out a perfect 13 mile loop, but turned out - - I didn't.  So when I thought I should be done, I still had 0.7 miles to go.  It's not much I know, but psychologically I felt . . .well, done.  So that last little bit was the biggest flog of the whole run . . .lol.

Wow - - after my 13 mile run on Thursday, I was beat today.  I did my six miles rather unenthusiastically with an average pace of 9:55.  Definitely wasn't feeling it.

Rest day.

My sons had four baseball games collectively, so I will say I really did rest from a physical standpoint, but mentally I felt pretty jazzed up because each game was squeaky close.  By the end of the day, I actually really wanted to run!  But it was too late.  I felt all sort of pent up and antsy.  I don't like my non-running days.  It's like running is my anxiety reliever and when I don't do it, I really don't feel great. 

Oh my gosh, I felt awesome this morning.  It was like someone wound me up tight as a spring, and then let me go.  I ran 8:18 as my average pace for the seven miles.  Seven hilly miles.  For me, that's really fast.  I just felt like I wanted to run fast - - which is not usually the way I feel.  But the weather was slightly cooler, and I just was feeling it.  Such a contrast from Friday's run where I felt like a slug!!!  

This week, I'm going to try to run seven miles each day . . .though I'm already worried about Friday because after a long run of 14, I sort of wonder where I'll find the oomph to run 7. 

8:46 pace this morning - -my goal marathon pace essentially.  Felt reasonably good, but not like yesterday.  AGAIN managed to somehow plan a run that was just a tad shorter than it needed to be so I had to run past my house.  Must stop doing that!!

Well, today I had to run on the dreadmill because of lightning.  It went well.  I did most of the miles at 9:15 - - and a few that were faster.  Frankly, I really, really, really don't like the treadmill so psychologically, these miles were a lot harder for me than my runs usually would be.  But my legs felt good so that was a plus.