10 more miles in the books!

On today's plan, the first mid week long run of the marathon training schedule. It's was to be a 10 miler with 5x800m somewhere in the middle. So, just to be fair....I realized how crazy I actually am when I went to set my alarm at 3:30 in the am so that I can get through the morning routine and out the door by 4:30. It was designated as a group run, so what I needed to do was get some miles in before, meet the group at 5.....and then finish up with a group run.

So I actually woke up (put up a Face Book note for proof at 3:50am), and got out the door by 4:20.....a full 10 mins before I had hoped to. That was great because by 5am I was able to get in 3.5 miles before we all toe'd the line for the 800s. My target times for the 800s, 4:12 per set or a 8:24/mile. Well......Needless to say I didn't hit any one of them.....Actually, I ran every one of them at 3:50. And to be honest, it seemed SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I'm realyl thinking that Michele and I are going to have to sit down after the first month of training and re-evaluate my goals. I was wanting to shoot for 3:30....Mamma Michele thinks 3:40....That's just going to be a wait and see.

Once we got through the 800s, I ran the final 3.5 miles partially with a training partner. And there too.....MUCH faster then prescribed. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing. So, needless to say I'm DAMN excited to know that the most daunting workout on the first week schedule wasn't actually so bad. That's such a mental victory, I can't even explain. Knowing that I CAN get that 10 miles with the 800s in, and actually get home by 6am, so I can get into work on TIME!

Also, with that victory comes a much earned DAY OFF tomorrow. At the onset I'm going to take Friday's off, and get my legs ready for a TOUGH weekend. Saturday is scheduled for a 5 mile Tempo Run. Sunday....15 miles with the last 5 miles at Marathon Pace.

So....Until then.........Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Group Workout #2 - Glitch Recovery

So talk about a little bit of a workout hiccup....I'm going to have to through in a little Top Gun quote here...."Good Recovery Mav!".....Because today started out just plain weird. For the first group workout of the 18 week marathon training schedule, seems there was a bit of a mixup on the spreadsheet, and I apparently didn't get the memo. Anyways, I actually showed up about 10 mins early, and to my surprise there was a parking lot full of cars. I wasn't sure who had fully signed up for the marathon training program, but this is a pretty sizable group! To be exact there are 17 of us making the plunge into the marathon training plan ravine. So there's going to be a lot of support along the way. So, imagine my surprise showing up 10 mins early seeing all the car of my fellow runners.......but an empty starting location......eeerie! Where were they....I saw two runners coming up that looked to be finishing their warm up, but they went into the parking lot and disappeared. And with the weird cloud cover, I thought for sure I was in the twilight zone.

SO I started to jog the loop we were supposed to run backwards when all of a sudden, here comes the group....full steam ahead. Apparently the start was a half mile from where I was.....although, not on the sked. No biggie....I got my watch started, and took off with them. What I ended up doing was going past the 2 mile finish mark by a quarter mile, and turn around so that I could at least finish and start the next set in the correct spot. Also......Apparently I didn't get the email that gave us target times. Mamma Michele sent out a spreadsheet that gave everyone their goal workout times. Since I didn't get that, I actually pushed todays workout a tad bit too hard. I was supposed to be paired with another runner, who, not only did I catch.....I passed and finished ahead of. Anyways, to make a long story short....I now have my target times to work with! WHEW. So here's what my splits are....and here's what my target times were supposed to be on the 3x2mile workout.

Set 1:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:20 (7:40/mile)

Set 2:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:20 (7:40/mile)

Set 3:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:28 (7:44/mile)

LOL.....At least I was consistent.......consistently WRONG.....

Anyways, Thursday is going to prove to be a bear. We have a 10 mile stroll though the neighborhood planned with 5x800m in the middle. Lets see if I can hold back and make my 4:12 target times. :)

Until then, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Let the GAMES BEGIN!

Well...We are officially 18 weeks from toeing the line in Long Beach CA for what will hopefully be a successful attempt at a Boston Qualifier. Last wee was kind of a rest week with some shorter speed sessions and a tempo run that we haven't done in a loooooong time. But the weekend was all about sunday sunDAY SUNDAY and the start of my journey. And of course....all good training plans have to be somewhat flexible....and what I mean by that is that if something sums up, you just have to know when to alter things a bit.

And of course, alterations happened Saturday night. On the schedule was a 14 mile run that was being held across town with my running group. Well.....To get there by the 5:30 start time, meant getting up before 4am and leaving the house by 4:45....That's a tough one during the week, let alone on a Sunday. Well...Saturday night we got invited to a pizza party. Well....After a few too many rum laced Eegees Pina Colada drinks, and lord knows how many beers......I happened to look at my watch and it was already 10:30.....After we packed up the kids, and got home, I didn't even roll into bed until almost 11. Now, in my defense, I did fall asleep quickly......as Saturday started with a 6 mile run with the group at 5:30am....and then I unloaded and spread about 6 tons of rock in my backyard. Needless to say, I was beat....So....I altered my plan, being my alarm clock, and made the decision to run solo Sunday am by 7. I would still do the 14 miles on the schedule. And that was EXACTLY what I did.

As I took off out the door just slightly before 7, I took it nice and easy. My body was kinda sore from Saturday, but my legs definitely wanted to run. My goal for the 14 miles was 2 hours and 6 mins. That's a nice easy 9 min/mile pace. My first mile came in at 9:11 as it almost always does. As my legs started to wake up, I dropped my splits to 9:04 and 9:02......From there, the faster songs on my iPhone started playing and I immediately lowered the pace down to 8:45ish. And that's pretty much where I stayed for the remainder of the run. Which meant, I started putting 15 or so seconds into the bank with each mile. At the end of the 14 miles, I clocked in at 2:04 and some change. Almost a full 2 minute quicker than I had expected. So, that made for a nice relaxing dive into the pool for a quick cool down before I started unloading that last ton and a half of rock.

And what's even more amazing....I FELT GREAT throughout the day. I managed to finish up the rock....Wash my poor 'ol truck free from the debris of hauling rock.....That, and I successfully managed to wake up this AM and log 3.5 miles of a recovery run! BAM! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

So, tomorrow is going to be another group workout. On the dockett is 3x2miles. Let's git er done! Until then, train hard and LIVESTRONG!