I assumed that he was purely motivated from his jealousy that he couldn't come up with daily blog posts for his own blog. HA! I'm a better blogger than you!!!
Maybe I was for a few weeks, but then I became a lazy, or rather, school started, so I stopped posting. I justified it by saying that the purpose of the blog was to motivate me to get back into steady running, and since it served its purpose, I no longer intended to write posts. Well, now I want to post again to really get myself revved up for the next phase of my training. I have 10 total weeks until my marathon, about 6 weeks of hard training left, and 3 more long runs.
Yesterday, I did an 18 miler that really wasn't half bad. Even with walk breaks, I ended up at about a 10:40 pace over all. Last year, I was running faster than that on my long runs, but I was also getting injured left and right. An IT band here, a runner's knee there, where as this year, my soreness is pretty much gone after a good night's rest.
On a another positive note, my pace on shorter runs is picking up considerably. Last week, I ran 12 miles, all of which were under a 10, and the seven mile repeats I did were all under 9 with even a few 8:30 miles. So my shorter runs this year are actually ahead of where I was last year.
More importantly, I'm realizing that I actually enjoy some of this "speed" work. (not that I am actually speedy)
Another update, I have lost all but 3 pounds of San Francisco weight. I'm just dandy with the slow and steady approach and would guess that the rest will probably come off with the increase in training.
Here is a training plan for the next several weeks:
Week 1: M- 5 easy
Th- 6
F- 6
Su- 9 mile repeats w/ warm up and cool down
Total- 28
Week 2:
M- 4 easy
W - 6 with accelerations
Th- 4 at marathon pace
Sa- 21
Total- 35
Week 3:
M- 5 easy
T- 6 marathon pace
Th- 8 with accel.
Sat- 11 mile repeats at sub- 9 pace
Total- 30
Week 4:
M- 5 easy
W- 7 marathon pace
F - 4 with accel.
Su- 24
Total- 40
Hopefully, the busy holiday season at school will not derail me. Wish me determination!
