Well, with week twelve of the marathon training behind us, we are officially almost in the single digits--only 10 weeks until marathon day! YIKES!! I've been online reading a lot about the Chicago marathon and pace groups and what to do during training and what to eat and how to make your time goals and all that kind of good stuff. We've been experimenting with gels and bars and sports beans and shot bloks (which are both of our favorites and the only thing that doesn't give me a stomach ache). And I think I've finally decided that finishing in 4:45 is my goal. I think it's pushing me some pace-wise, but doable for me and I'm going to really keep working on that pace for our long runs and for out longer Wednesday runs to train my body to keep that pace, because it's not my natural pace yet. Among other things, that's one thing Landon is awesome at, is knowing his pace and being able to just run at it--he's around a 9 minute mile pace, which I'm so jealous of. I've been struggling lately with feeling like I'm such a slow runner (my goal race pace for a 4:45 finish is 10:50, which I hate because it sounds SO SLOW) but I just keep telling myself that that's where I'm at right now and as much as I wish I could run with Landon and my dad and manage 9 minute splits, it's just now where I'm at right now. I just hope that when I finish the race in Chicago I'll finish knowing that I ran the best I could and be happy with that, even if it is slow. :)
It all makes me both excited and nervous about October 11th. A little more nervous than excited though--I mean, as much training as you do, 26.2 miles is still a really long way to go and, in all honesty, it still seems really far from where we are right now. But, I'm starting to feel like I can do this.
This last week was both a step up week (we increased our mid-week mileage) and a step down week (we only had to run 10 miles on our long run to prepare/rest for next week's 15 miler). We kinda did ourselves in though, because we did our long run last Sunday afternoon, instead of Saturday morning like normal, and it was 13 miles, our longest run yet, so basically we were still tired from it when we began our training on Tuesday. On Tuesday we just walked our 3 miles instead of running, trying to recover since our legs/feet were still feeling it. On Wednesday night though, we ran 7 miles ( a mile up from what we'd been running) and both pushed our pace--I managed to hold around a 10 min pace for the whole 7 miles, which is the fastest I've run that distance at since we started running at our own paces, which was exciting. And I was tired after, but neither of us were dead, which was nice. We had four miles on Thursday (a mile up from our usual 3 on Thursdays) and basically did the same thing.
We also measured the track that we're running on and figured out that it's just a little over a .1 track (.1046) which means little, unless you're running long distances around it, like we sometimes are. Basically, we figured out that for every mile we run, we're running 30 seconds faster than our watches say, because we're running a little further than a mile. So, we're not changing the amount of laps we run on it, but for us 30 seconds is a lot per mile, and it just gives us a little cushion knowing that we're actually running a little further than we think we are (or a little faster, depending on how you think about it). Hopefully that will help us with our paces on race day. Better to be running a little faster than our pace now, than a little slower!
By the time Saturday morning rolled around our legs were still a little tired and our feet were still a little sore from all of the pounding, but we got out there and ran 10 miles--it's funny how 10 miles has become a "short" long run! Ha! I had trouble finding my pace this time--I think I have this huge fear that I will start too fast and not be able to finish, but that's silly and I just need to get over it. My first mile I ran right around an 11 minute, then I dropped steadily over the next 3 until I was running a 13 minute mile and getting passed like crazy by my husband. At some point something clicked in my head and I knew I just had to kick it up and actually run. So I did and for miles 6-9 I was basically running at my race pace, which was cool. I was tired, but not dying, and I was able to use Landon to pace myself around the track and it helped A LOT, which gave me hope that the pace groups we're running with at the marathon will help a lot. I slowed down a little on mile 10 after Landon finished his run and then he was so sweet to come and run my last 1/4 mile with me to the finish. I ended up with an average pace close to my pace group time, as did Landon! And, we were still walking and talking and functioning, albeit a little tired, at the end. Now we just need to do that twice and add a 10k to the end and we're good to go!
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