Sunday, September 28, 2014

Long Runs Have Come To An End

This says it all for me!  I have just completed the hardest week of my training and I feel GREAT!  I even allowed myself to miss a run in order to rest from the long run last Sunday.  I can not believe that in 3 weeks from today,  I will have completed my 4th marathon and will hopefully be posting that I ran the best race of my life!

Here's how things went this week that keeps me very optimistic....

Tuesday I went to CG and had a great workout.  It was Week 3, High Intensity Interval Training.  By far my most favorite week of camp.  The reason, I think is because it really challenges me to push beyond what I think I am capable of.  

Wednesday I met up with some of the Mom's in a running group I belong to.  I met them about a mile in to my run.  I hadn't been out with them in awhile so it was nice to be out with a group.  The weather was pretty nice too!

Thursday was another CG workout!  It was weight day.....gotta love it.  I must have really looked like I was working hard because a few hours after, I got a text message from the trainer telling me what a good job I did!  Maybe she thought I looked like I was struggling and just wanted to encourage me so I would come back!  No worries, Jessie!  You can't get rid of me that easily.

Friday morning came with a warm up run for Saturday's long run.  I met a couple of the weekend guys.  One of which is training for a 100-miler next month (yep, you read that right).  He needed to do an "easy" 8 miles.  So I thought perfect, we'll have a great run with a steady conversational pace.....NOT!  We averaged 8:20/mi.....so much for a warm up for Saturday.  I didn't intend to do speed?!

So, I was pretty excited to see what I would do on Saturday as this was the only 20 miler scheduled on my training program.  The pace was suppose to be 8:34-9:10/mi for the first 12, then 8:40-8:50/mi for 5 and for the home stretch back down to 8:34-9:10/mi.  We stayed between 8:44-8:54 for 12, for the next 5 my splits were 8:34, 8:23, 8:35, 8:21, 8:13.  I know for most, this doesn't mean much for me, I was a little surprised and pretty impressed with myself.  The last mile & a half of which was up a slow incline that for those that know the Cowtown course reminded me of mile 8 coming up Main Street!  While the last 3 miles were suppose to be a slower pace, my mind had other plans & so did my running partner!  With about 2 miles to go, we saw 3 runners about a half a mile in front of us.  Keith turned to me and said, "There's your rabbits, go get 'em!"  My body said "yeah right" and so did my mind.....for about a minute!  The result was the fastest mile of the morning & just what I needed to reassure me that I have trained well, I've trained hard and I am ready!  Now what to do for the next 3 weeks during my taper.....Wish me luck!


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