Sunday, September 12, 2010

1000

Last weekend I hit 1000* miles for 2010.  That is pretty amazing considering the fact that I hit the 1000 mile mark the last week of the year in 2009.  I am almost full four months ahead of last year!

I still haven’t busted the fifty mile week yet, but I have been close (forty-seven).  However, I ran 171 miles in the month of August, a new personal best!  I think September might shape up to be a monster mileage month as well.  I ran twenty-six miles this weekend** and have a couple more twenty milers scheduled.  We’ll see how it goes.

I am enjoying a higher mileage training plan. With my high-mileage plan, I can run with my friends and not worry about pace.  I can run one day at twelve-minute-miles with the girls and another at a tempo pace under race pace.  It really works for me and gives me a higher level of flexibility.  I know my way involves a good bit of “junk” miles, but these “junk” miles are good for my mental state as much as anything and I don’t want to give them up.  As Long Beach Marathon approaches, I am adding more quality miles to my weekly total.
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In the interest of getting some of those quality miles, I did my first track workout in a very long time.  Since Marci and I both hadn’t done speedwork yet this training cycle, we started “easy.”   But there is nothing easy about 800m intervals on the track.  We were aiming for something around 3:45 for 800m using Yasso as the guideline.  I also had my friend Nadine’s FIRST pace for these intervals,*** which is 3:33.  We did four 800m repeats at 3:24, 3:28, 3:38 and 3:26.  Not bad!  We walked/jogged our recovery for 400m, but I think I want to reduce that to 200m this week.  I think it was just a bit too long (although, at the time, I didn’t think so). Our goal is to work up to eight or ten repeats in the next several weeks.

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On Saturday, I ran 20 miles at Newport’s Back Bay.*** It was a gorgeous morning and the weather was perfect.  The Back Bay is a great place to run.  I ran with my friends and we took it pretty easy.  In fact, our pace was so relaxed that at one point I was worried that running close to two minutes faster during the marathon would be impossible.  I decided to run my last two miles at race pace or faster.  It was good timing, since Joan was ready to switch to run/walk.  Kelly and I took off and I gradually kicked it into another gear.  I felt great.  By mile 19, I was feeling in a zone.  I really turned it on, because I still had a lot left.  I ran my last mile in 7:58 and it was a HUGE confidence booster.  I was thrilled that I could finish a twenty mile run with 10k speed.

I did stop right around nineteen miles, however, for a minute or two.  There were some people gathered looking at something.  There was some sort of animal on the trail about twenty feet from the bike path.  I was expecting a coyote, but was surprised to see at bobcat!  Apparently, she is a known resident of the bay and is named Babe.  I thought she was pretty cool!

Newport Back Bay Bobcat
Newport Bay Nature Preserve
I knock on wood that my running continues like this.  I feel good.  I feel strong.  I’m having fun.  What more can I ask for?  I hope the next 1000 miles are just as enjoyable.

Happy Running…

*I hit 1000 miles on September 5
**20 miles on Saturday and 6.2 miles this morning.
***My friend, Nadine, did the FIRST program earlier this year when she qualified for Boston, which has three high quality runs per week.  It doesn’t allow for deviation in the plan, though.
****This is the stomping grounds for fellow blogger, Glenn.

12 comments:

L.B. said...

A bobcat??? Sweet! Definitely a treat for you.

Congrats on the thousand-mile mark! I'm set to cross that on Wednesday myself, so it's quite encouraging knowing that I'm in some good company :)

A 7:58 for the last mile of a 20-mile run??? Are you kidding?? Nice! I'm not quite there yet, don't know if I'll ever get there, but that's just so motivating and so encouraging.

abbi said...

Wow...a bobcat...wouldn't expect to actually see that on the trail! Congrats on the 1000 mile mark.

Unknown said...

Wow, 1000 miles already!

Glenn Jones said...

Congrats on your milestone (no pun intended). Yes - Babe is a famous resident of the bay. She had a litter of kittens earlier in the spring. Every now and then she'll drag them around on the West Side of the bay....

misszippy said...

Wow--how cool to see a bobcat out there! Congrats on hitting 1,000!

The Green Girl said...

Wow, a bobcat?

Congratulations on hitting 1,000! ::high fives::

Lindsay said...

Hey whatever works for you! I definitely need room for flexibility, I could never make it on FIRST.

Jill Will Run said...

Your running this year has been amazing, I'm seriously in awe of you. I like the idea of the FIRST program and wouldn't mind trying it sometime, but like you said... with no deviation I can't really do runs with friends or with my Team Challenge crew. I'm looking forward to ramping up my mileage as it gets cooler, and I also don't even care if they are "junk miles"!

Aron said...

your training is going amazing!!! you are going to do so well :)

i am going to be in LB!!!!!!! i am doing the half but we HAVE to meet up this time!

Terri said...

Wow, that's a lotta miles you've been logging there lately, lady! But hey,if you are enjoying it (I could see you smiling at the end of this post) and it is helping with your stress, then definitely go for it!

The pics of the run in the fog are beautiful. I am very jealous that Glenn gets to live in such a beautiful area, but I also understand it's quite expensive around there!

The Alien said...

Congrats on getting to 1k miles so fast this year! Those pictures are great, I specially like the second one.

Irene said...

Congrats on the 1000!

Beautiful pictures!

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