Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Fall back week

Last week I didn't plan to have a fall back week, but I only ran twenty miles.  Like I have said before, sometimes life gets in the way.  You have to be able to embrace it.  I have no regrets, because we had a great weekend.*

It may have been a good thing.  The last few days I have felt pretty tired.  I might be fighting a virus or I might have been on the verge of over training.  I'm not going to worry too much about it.  Stressing out over my training schedule isn't going to prepare me better for the marathon in February.  I am going to move forward and try to run smart to get up to where I need to be.

By now, I should have run a sixteen mile run.   The longest run I have done (since the half marathon in August) is twelve.  Once again, this next weekend, life is getting in the way of my long run.  My husband has to work some pretty crazy hours over the weekend, which will make running nearly impossible.  I may see if my brother and his wife will have my kids over to play with their cousin for a few hours on Sunday so I can try to run fifteen or sixteen miles.  As a busy mom with an even busier husband, I need to fit in my runs where I can.


On a bright note... yesterday I was able to take advantage of both kids being in school and went for not one, but two runs.  I met some friends for an easy six mile run on the river trail.  It was a slow pace, but it was nice to run and chat.  It was relaxing.  Afterward, I still had forty minutes or so until I had to pick up my son so I decided to run four more miles at a more aggressive pace.  It felt good to run a bit faster after such a pleasant warm up.  I tried to keep my pace at or below 9:00.  The first mile was easy.  The second was a bit more work due to the fact that I was running on a soft shoulder of a street the day after a heavy rain.  Between dodging puddles and slogging through soft grass, my pace was 9:15.   Ironically, that mile is the flattest of the route.  The last two miles were a stead incline.  I worked hard to keep my pace up, rather than taking it easy like I normally do on hills during a casual run (as opposed to hill repeats).  I averaged 8:56 for the entire run.

So hopefully I'll be able to put in a decent amount of miles this week.   It will definitely be a balancing act.

*Disneyland was wonderful.  It was everything we had hoped it would be.  While I missed both my Saturday and Sunday runs because of weekend activities, we definitely were not sedentary.  There was a LOT of walking around Disneyland, so I did get some time on my feet.   It was worth missing half my mileage for the week.

5 comments:

MCM Mama said...

Good job fitting running into your life without letting it take over.

Kristin said...

Thanks for your nice comments on my blog. :) If you don't have a specific race in mind for your BQ next year, I do recommend CIM. I think you would be great there because you are accustomed to hills, and although the course is hilly, they are moderate hills and I think that works well. Glad you had a good time at Disneyland. I think the last time I was there was 26 years ago... things have probably changed a little since then(although some things never change).

Marathonman101108 said...

I know it's difficult to balance family and running at times. It's nice to see you have your priorities straight. Nothing beats quality time with the family, as you know. Watch out, the little ones grow up quickly. My "little ones" somehow are now 27 and 24 years old. I know you'll find a way to get your long runs in during the next two months. If not, so be it. My best marathon time came with my longest training run only being 16 miles. Go figure!

RunnerMom said...

You've got time to get in plenty of long ones, no worries! You are running strong and fast and your weekly mileage is great. I think the weekly mileage really might be the key. (Of course a few long runs are important, too.)

I am SO GLAD I don't have to keep training until Feb! I didn't realize how burned out I was. For better or worse, I'm running next Sunday, the 20th. (I had to stop myself from typing "getting it over with" in regards to the marathon.) I'm working on my attitude. :-)

We'll see what a 5-week taper and a virus does to one's marathon.... On my last 20-miler, I was on track for a 4:45 or 4:50 marathon, but who knows?

Terri said...

Hey, I've been reading your blog and keeping up, sorry I've not had a lot of time to comment. You amaze me with how much running you DO manage to get in, with two young kids. It's so much more than anyone else I know who has kids. Really. The good thing is, you've done the marathon thing before so you and your body know what to expect. You'll do just fine in February!

and I'm so jealous you can do the race on Catalina Island. It looks so absolutely gorgeous. I've have to try hard to not come in last because I'd be staring at the scenery the whole time, and well, at that distance, I can't say I have any speed to speak of!

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