Yeah, so I've been a little negligent. I found myself in a bit of a rut last spring. I can't even remember where I left off, but I did four halfs (halves?) in four months. Let's see- Jacksonville Marine Corps Half, Soldier Half, Jacksonville Bank Half, and finally the Ocala Half. They all went reasonably well. I finished between 1:53 and 1:56 in all of them. I can't even remember my finishing time in Ocala, but I ended up first in my age group and scored a cool horse statue! That, my friends, was a hard race. Never-ending hills. Ouch.
In March, I finished the Gate River Run in Jax and found myself with a Top Ten Percent hat. Awesome! My scorching 8:30ish pace worked for the top ten women, but they weren't giving the hats to the guys around me. Ha. So in the future, 8:30 for women may get you a hat, probably not for guys. (I very rarely wear my hat cause I feel silly, but I still wanted one!)
The spring came- I finally can recognize a pattern to my running. Even though the summer and fall are horrible temperature wise, the rest of my life is more under control (no holidays and the kids' school stuff isn't in full swing)- my running seems better. In the spring, I'm pretty fit, but tired... and then the pollen kicks in. February is not a good month for me. I hung on this year and survived the Gate River Run (although I couldn't talk after the race). March through May is a disaster of school stuff- can you say field trips? And then it's hot again.
I like to gauge my summer fitness by the Fourth of July Sunshine Festival run. It was maybe a little hotter this year and I was ridiculously tired, but all excuses aside, it kind of sucked. I finished in something like 24:3x. It wasn't bad by any means, but was a full minute off last year's time and made it obvious that I'd been slacking. Oh, and gained a few pounds...
SO... I've decided to change things up a bit this year. First, I've accepted that summer through fall is my best training time. As much fun as it was to run the four halfs in four months, I think I'm going to focus on one or two races. Last year's training consisted of running races (the halfs) with a few weekend long runs (maybe 10 miles each) and about 4 weekly runs of 6-7 miles each with an average pace of 9:30 or so. I didn't follow a training plan for the halfs, and it showed. I was consistent, but I wasn't really improving. And I was always a little tired and on the edge of injury (weird tendon/foot swelling thing).
Drum Roll-- I just finished the first week of Pfitzinger's 18/55 plan. (Ok, actually it was more like the 3rd week but I had to jump in there and I'd already built up my base after the humiliation of the Fourth of July race).
I'm signing up for the Soldier Marathon. That's right-- the FULL. I might do a half as a training run along the way, but come November, I'll be running my first real Full (I don't count the Goofy because it was it's own crazy thing.)
So last week looked like this:
PFITZ: 15 weeks before the race:
Monday: rest (not a problem).
Tuesday: 10 miles at average 9:55 pace in the rain. I thought I looked like pretty hard core running in the rain until a little old lady tried to force me on her porch...
Wednesday: 4 miles at recovery pace (10:00ish). Again with the rain. Ugh. Had to avoid old lady's house.
Thursday: scheduled 8 miles with 4 at half pace. Only had time for 7 at lunch:
Mile 1: 9:38
Mile 2: 8:18
Mile 3: 8:26
Mile 4: 8:55
Mile 5: 8:57
Mile 6: 9:40
Mile 7: 9:53
I was supposed to hit a pace around 8:09-8:30 for the fast stuff. Obviously, I didn't. It was 86 degrees with 65% humidity and a dew point of 74 degrees-- I'm hoping these numbers will creep back down when (if??) the weather gets better. It certainly felt like a hard effort.
Friday: rest. Sweet!
Saturday: 4 recovery miles (ave. pace 10:05). This time the dewpoint was 77 degrees. Pleasant. And actually, I mean it. Sure the weather was horrendous, but slowing down the pace made it bearable. I had to keep changing to mellow music to slow myself down.
Sunday: Scheduled 14 miles at 9:06-10:06 pace. This one was rather daunting. I got up early (like dark early!) and ate some Greek yogurt and had a Diet Dr. Pepper. Out the door at 5:30 a.m. with a water bottle filled with Heed, my phone, shiny clothing, and a flash light. The temperature was 81, humidity 83%, and dewpoint 76 degrees. Ran by the stadium where two chihuahuas charged me (WTH?!) Waved to some cops. Really weird to run in the dark. Didn't need my flashlight so I tossed it in a friend's yard. Did the fourteen miles in 2:16:xx. Times were 10:59/10:11/9:58/9:47/9:39/9:23/9:33/9:31/9:17/9:18/9:49/9:30/9:44/9:56. This was a hard run but mostly because I was so worried about the dark that I didn't prepare to run 14 miles. By about mile 10 I was hating the now hot Heed- got a bit of a sidestitch going downhill- only made better by going uphill (but that hurt everything else!). Should have probably had a few more carbs before I left, should have at least brought a gel just in case, and really need to freeze my water ahead of time. I made it home well before 8:00 a.m. to find the boys watching TV and playing on Harry's DS- perfectly happy.
Thoughts on the week: two firsts-- I've never run any major distance in the rain and never in the dark (except at the start of a Disney race!). I found my paces based on times plugged into the McMillan calculator. I can already tell a difference in how I feel- I didn't realize how important it is to really slow down for the recovery runs. I put in a lot of miles this week (39) including my longest run in forever and only had minor soreness on Monday- I recognize it's silly to judge a plan by one week of runs, but I'm feeling optimistic.
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