Marathon Training Weeks 15 & 16

Pre run looking happy.

Note: I had this great post written last Monday about my wonderful 20-mile run and how great CARA is, and how great Ready to Run is, and how great my pace group leaders and training buddies are, and how great the weather was, basically just how great everything was, but then I did something and it didn't save and then it was gone. So instead of trying again later, I threw in the towel, figured you all had enough of me going on and on about marathon training anyway.

Short version is: Great run, as I mentioned, nice day, felt really good after the run and am now feeling pretty confident I can achieve my goal of a 4:45 finish time barring some unforeseen event.

There were a few things different between the first time I ran 20 miles and this last time. First, the weather was much nicer - cool and overcast for most of the run. More importantly is the amount of training I've done and the base I had coming into marathon training. It has made all the difference. I figured out the other day I missed almost 100 miles of training in 2012; this year, I've missed less than 20. Consistency is the key.

Post run - amazingly, still happy.

But putting in the miles does take a lot of time. I've had people ask me how I find the time to train with a four year old at home. And while it can be challenging, especially more so when you're married to someone who also spends a good amount of time running, it's totally doable - if that's the thing you want to do. I get up early a few days a week, I run home one day a week and I hire a babysitter on Saturday mornings, or he stays over at my sister's house the night before. Sure, there are times I think that my son will one day be sitting on a therapist couch talking about how we would have rather gone running on Saturday mornings for hours at a time instead of make him pancakes. But honestly, if this is the worse thing we do to him, I think he'll live. Of more concern to him right now is why we don't buy him every single toy he sees.

Back to running. I wisely took the Monday after the 20-miler off to rest and relax. So I went to a yoga class which was a wonderful way to stretch out. All day I was surprised at how well I felt. The next day, when I went out for my morning five mile run, didn't feel as great. It wasn't a terrible run, but I definitely felt the 20-miles. The terrible run came the next day. The eight miles home felt worse than the 20 miles. My legs felt like lead the entire time. I kept waiting for them to warm up which finally happened at mile seven. However, by Saturday morning, with only a 12-mile run, I was back to my usual self. There was even part of me that wanted to push it toward the end. I settled with running up Cricket hill.

So now I'm at the point where I'm figuring out my game plan for the day of the race. I'm going to try to keep at a 10:50 pace for the first half and then see if I can either negative split or stay at that pace to finish. I'd hit the finish line around 4:44 - and that would be 39 minutes faster than my first marathon. But we'll see - I'm still not totally confident that's how it will turn out.

Stats for the last two weeks:
Miles run: 69
Miles left to go: 56.2
Raised so far: $1075.20
Left to go: Nothing - just seeing how much I can raise now.