The first weekend in November will always be a special time for me. Last year, I had the opportunity to go to New York City for the first time ever, and participate in the ING New York City Marathon with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It was an incredibly special time for me, in what was an incredibly difficult year. See, back in February not only did my wifes grandmother pass away, but a good friend of mine was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. It was so far progressed, that it had spread through his lyph nodes and had reacehd his lungs and liver. At this point we had thought he had gotten a handle on it. It wasn't progressing, and when we went to dinner with them, he looked really good. From the outside you would never know that his body was being ravaged by this aweful disease. It wasn't long after I came back from NYC that his health took the ultimate turn for the worse. So this weekend, I decided both my runs would be with my NYC LIVESTRONG jersey that I ran in NYC with.
Saturday started off with a 3x2mile interval set followed up with a 5x1min. This was a crucial marathon paced workout, plus I could use it as a guage to see where my fitness has progressed over the past couple of months. At the start, my target splits were set at an 8:05 min/mile pace for 16:10 per set. I was paired off with a new face in the group, which turned out to be kind of a mistake....for him. We took off with the slower paces first, and I was the third group out of the gates. And I took off fast.....I had taken Friday off, and my legs felt GREAT! Every couple of minutes I would look down at my watch to see where my average pace was at that moment, adn I was shocked to see it around low sevens. So, I decided to throttle back a bit because I knew it was a long workout. I eventually settled into a 7:30 pace. MUCH FASTER then what mamma Michele had wanted me to run. When I got to the 2 mile marker, I had finished my split at 14:58, but I felt great. So set 2 I kept up the same pace, and actually came in a few seconds faster at 14:55. This is a SIGNIFICANT milestone because I just ran 4 miles then under 30 minutes. To be exact, 7 sencods to space. That's HUGE! That gets me ever so close to reaching my goal of getting to that elusive Walgreens corner. That's where I want to be in 30 minutes SOOOOOOOOO bad. And if I were to run another 7 seconds, that puts me about 15-20 seconds short. VERY VERY VERY doable by my January timeframe when I want to run my marathon. My thirs set kicked off and I still sayed amazingly consistent. The end of the thirs set clocked in at 15:02. Only a 7 second slowdown form the previous set. And I finished roughly a minute off of two runners that I have never been able to keep pace with. That's the making of that first stepping stone that I wanted to hit, and it's only th ebeginning of NOVEMBER! With the 5 times a minute at the end, it left me with about a mile to jog back to the start, and a full 8 mile morning, hence the reason I took off Friday.
So that left me with a 14 mile run through te neighborhood to finish out a great weekend. The rest of the group was going to go run with another running group in Tucson, so I did this one SOLO. Nothing wrong with that. So I put on the headphones and took off at a nice easy 9:30 pace. I knew that I would eventually turn up the screws towards the end when my legs were tired, it's a new peice to my training puzzle. I'm working on the negative split. Trying to keep yourself in check at the start and not go wild by blowing all of your energy too early. And it's bene working out beautifully. By the time I got to the 4 mile mark, I had already ratched the pace down to a nice 9:15, and I was GOING UPHILL! I added onto last weeks route a new segment of road that JUST reopened yesterday. And man...that pavement is NICE! Not once did I EVER want to stop. I just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Mentally, I was getting tired, but I kept clicking off the miles, one after another. Eventually I worked my pace into the 8:45 zone. PERFECT for the long run SUNDAYS! That's where I want to be. Did I mention that I kept it up as I went through the run. 7, 8, 9, then 10.....They just kept clicking off. By 12 I could tell my legs were getting tired. I told myself...lets' just get to 13. I got to 13 and headed up a tough hill....Part way up the hill, the mile marker clicked off.....and by the time I got to the top, it was time for the nice stroll on back home......I ended up having to do a little bit in my neioghborhood, but I just wanted to get on home.......so, tired legs and all, I managed to finish up with a nice little 8:35 pace.. :) And why was I wanting to get home so bad....So I could get on te computer and watch the NYC Marathon. Trust me....I've really been down a bit becaeu I just wanted to be there with all of the excitement. I'm not ready to do a full yet...Mentally or physically. I haven't done all of the hard work yet. Last year I did enaough to get through, but the business of owning a business played a roll in that. This year I don't have that, and I'm making strides I never thought I could have made. And what a race it was. It was amazing to see Paula Radcliff run the race of her life, winning NYC not only back to back, but adding her name to a short list of people who have rwon the race three times. And what a race the mens marathon turned out to be. Gomes Dosantos who led most of the race, recovered from his midrace bonk to blow my the leader and win the race in the final mile through Central Park. Just makes me a little more dissapointed that I wasn't there to see it in person. I'm going to have to circle it on my calendar for next year to either run it, or at least be there. And finally, congratulations to American Kara Goucher on mer marathon debut by getting 3rd place overall in what I think ended up in a new record for an American Womans debut. GREAT RACE!!!
So, when the alarm
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