CTLR: 6 more weeks!!!

Countdown to Little Rock

 

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Wouldn't this be awesome!

The question I have for myself is "Why must I always have some form of a plan?! Why can't I just let things happen?!" My brain is wired to have a plan in place...even if that plan flops. The past couple of weeks, I've been trying to set a plan in place for my marathon. I still have no idea what my body is potentially capable of (which makes planning a little difficult). I have to distinguish between my dreams, reality, and showing myself some postpartum race grace. I think I have finally settled on dividing this race into halves. I'm planning to join a pace group for the first half to see how my body handles things. The first half is supposed to be rolling (based on reviews I've read). The second half has some significant hills, but it also has a stretch of flat. My thought is that, if I feel good after the first half, I can conquer the hills, take advantage of the flat section, conquer the last hill at the end, and just finish like my life depended on it...all of this in hopes of a potential negative split. I have never done this in a marathon and it's never been a goal to negative split, but this course seems to be appropriate for it...at least on paper. Sure, there are other factors, but at least my mind is at ease with a plan.

• 1/16: 6 miles, 9:02/mile; Core workout. My goal today was to average 9mm or slower. I easily could have run outside but wasn't feeling it for whatever reason. I could still feel the effects of my 20 miler, so I tried to stretch really well post-run.
  

  

  Big eyes!

• 1/17: 8 miles, 8:19/mile. Race pace run. A short work day meant I was able to enjoy this awesome shorts and short sleeve running day! Per usual, I was freaking out all day about this workout. My goal was to run 2 warm up miles followed by 6 miles between 8:15-8:20/mile. My previous race pace runs were run on the treadmill and progressively from 8:34 to 8:13. I wanted today to be a test of sorts to see if I could run the entire distance in the faster end of my range (which is why I was freaking out!!). I was slightly nervous about the wind (15mph), but comforted slightly by the fact that it felt so nice out. My warm up miles were [9:24 and 8:54]. I didn't feel that awesome running those miles so I didn't go into my race pace section feeling confident. I was trying to keep an eye on my watch during my first fast mile to ensure I could feel what my goal pace felt like. I clocked in at 8:08 and attempted to make a change the second mile. When the next one was [8:10], I just gave up and tried not to run at a feel faster than that...FAIL. The remaining miles were [8:04, 8:01, 7:59, 7:46]. The last two miles were the toughest because of the wind. I didn't realize I was going that fast because I was just trying not to let the wind slow me down. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I could run that speed, but I really wanted to be more disciplined with my pacing. After today, I really have no idea what pace I can run a marathon. It makes it so hard to train! A coach friend gave me an idea on something to try during my next 20 miler. It should give me a better idea of what might be appropriate regarding race pace.
  

  

  Took my run to the streets of Hilliard.

• 1/18: 8.1 cycling miles, upper body workout. My calf felt like it was cramping up while I was riding. It was really weird. Later that evening, I noticed my Achilles bothering me a bit. This is nothing new for me. I've had this a few times before, typically after a hard week of running or a hard workout (HELLO last week and race pace run!). I'll see how it feels in the morning!
  

  

• 1/19: 8.01 miles, 8:15/mile. TRACK DAY!!! I finally decided on a ladder workout (except I ended up taking out the intended 1600 because I didn't want to run more than 8 miles). I knew I wanted to run the intervals at 5k pace...I just didn't know what that meant for me right now! I don't really have a 5k pace at the moment. I decided to use one of those fancy Runner's World calculators to predict race times based on my goal marathon paces. Based on that, my goal was to maintain a pace of 7:15-7:30/mile. Goals: 400m- 1:49-1:53, 800m- 3:38-3:45, 1200m- 5:27-5:38. What I ran:
  

  

  I was proud of my performance, but it left me thoroughly confused about my abilities. My actual paces ranged from 6:28-7:02/mile. Oh well...only one way to find out!
  

  

• 1/20: Leg workout. Not sure why, but I was super excited to do this workout. I think I just love being at the gym...making my muscles scream.
  

  

  Bridge with stability ball.

  
  

  

  
  
• 1/21: 12.01 miles, 8:31/mile. Well, probably went a little too fast. My legs were a little tired from my leg workout. Again, I didn't look at my watch, but I knew something wasn't right when Marion said something along the lines of OH $H!T after the first mile beeped. Ha! We ran at the O trail for the first time in forever. We used to run there all the time, but it got a little old so we took a year off. It was nice to get back out there!
  

  

  Some of my peeps. [ME, Theresa, Marion, Meg]

• 1/22: REST. Legs are still feeling the effects of the leg workout...but I love it.