Busy Weekend!

I had to laugh when I read Janette's blog from this weekend....I could have written the exact same thing about my run on Saturday! It was a beautiful day (upper 70's and sunny) and I thought it would be a good idea to go for a 12 mile run on the Newton Hills at 10:30am. The temperature wasn't bad, but the sun was high in the sky and at its strongest of the day....at least I wore my sunscreen! There were some little girls that had a lemonade stand on the side of the road and I think I would have bought them out if I had any money on me!! When I got home I drank about 40 oz of liquid and still felt thirsty. I am going to have to start refilling my water bottles during my long runs to stay properly hydrated.

Saturday afternoon Bryan and I headed up to New Hampshire for the night. We camped in one of the state owned campgrounds which was fun, but not the best night of sleep being in a tent on the ground...and we were treated to an amazing thunder and lightning storm from about 3:30-5:30am! We got up early Sunday morning and hiked the Franconia Ridge Trail. Its a 9 mile loop that takes you up over Lafayette (5260 ft), Lincoln (5089 ft), and Little Haystack (4800 ft). We had a great time, but my legs were definitely feeling it on the way back down! Taking off my hiking boots was the best feeling ever!!

It was a fun and exhausting weekend...I sure slept well in my own bed last night!
Total Weekly miles: 35.5

Update

After my little freak out on Thursday night and Friday, I have calmed back down. I quickly asked Janette for her advice and what she would do if in my position. After telling me to breathe, she volunteered to come with me down to Hartford if Bryan wasn't able to make it. That was really, really nice of her and I might take her up on her offer. She agreed that running so many miles while on vacation doesn't sound relaxing!!

I also talked to Bryan and worked out various scenarios so that he could be there. He promised me that he would be there in time to watch me....no matter what!! That was all I needed to hear. I can manage either by myself or with Janette on Friday night, but I needed to know that he would be there Saturday morning when I started running. Its still going to be hard for him to figure out the logistics with work.....non-runners don't really understand the importance of such an event. But we will make it work!

So I am still planning to run the Hartford Marathon on October 13th.....17 more weeks to go!!

Time to hit the PANIC BUTTON!!

Ok....so I am freaking out!! I was all set to run Hartford.....last night I was looking at hotel rooms for Friday night since the marathon starts early Sat. morning. Bryan gets home from work and tells me that he won't be able to stay over in Hartford because he is working overnight on Friday. Hello.....the race starts at 8am and you are on call until 7am at the earliest.....how does he expect to make it to Hartford to be with me (1.5-2 hour drive from Boston)?? I just wish we had figured this out earlier when I was making my pros/cons list......I mean this would have been a major CON for Hartford!!!! I know its not his fault and we just didn't realize the implications it would have. Even if he did make it down in time, that means I would be going down there, staying by myself, and having to get ready by myself.....I don't know if I can do that!! I know how nervous I was the night before Boston and I don't think I could go through that alone in a hotel room by myself!

So my dilemma is this.....
(1) Run Hartford as planned but have to be alone :(
(2) Push up my training and run an earlier marathon

(3) Push my training back and run Philly.......which means 49 MPW while on vacation (two 10 mile runs mid-week and I could save the 20-22 miler for the day or two after we get home)

Today he is looking into the slim possibility of switching the Friday night before Hartford with someone, but it doesn't look like that is an option. The crappy thing is that I have to decide this like now because it majorly affects my training......it took me weeks to decide on Hartford and now I have a day or so to figure this out :(

Sorry I am rambling......I was in tears last night thinking about this and I know most people wouldn't understand why I am so upset. But it is 18 weeks of your life that you are devoting to this. What would you do?????

Back in training!

It's hard to believe that the Boston Marathon was almost 2 months ago! What's even harder to believe is that I started my 18 week training plan for my fall marathon....United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon!. I looked into many different fall marathons and narrowed it down to Hartford and Philly. After making pros and cons lists about both, I decided to run Hartford this fall.....I'll save Philly for another year.

I am following a different training program this time around. Its slightly more advanced peaking at 55 miles per week....my first program peaked at about 40-45 miles per week. It also focuses on quality runs with specific pacing for my marathon goal pace (whatever that may be!) For Boston I didn't focus on speed....if I wanted to run faster, I did and if I wanted to slow down, I did. I am excited to take on this challenge even though I know its going to be hard work.

Sunday I cross-trained on the stair master and today I did a 7 mile General Aerobic run with 10 x 100m strides. I felt great the whole time with an average pace of 8:33 min/mile....I actually had to hold back my pace some. Days like today I wish I could bottle up that extra energy and speed to use it for a day when I feel sluggish! At least I am off to a good start with my training!

Jimmy Kennedy 5 mile race

On Saturday, I headed down to Quincy to meet up with Janette to run the Jimmy Kennedy 5 mile race for ALS. It was chilly and misting rain, but great to see Janette again and run together. The course went past the ocean and it was a nice change to run in a different location than my normal routes.

I won't lie....5 miles at race pace was tough! I finished in 37:30...a 7:30 pace. I was very pleased with my time! With about 1/4 mile to go, there was with other woman in front of us. Janette leaned over to me and said "we have to beat this lady!" I was thinking the same thing so we picked up our pace and flew past her.

After the race, Janette and I went out for lunch and chatted about what we have been up to. It was a great morning....even if it was raining!

Ouch!

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness......ouch! I have been trying to be better about fitting strength training into my weekly routine - lifting my legs 1x a week and upper body/core 2x a week. So on Wednesday after my 4 mile recovery run, I went to the gym and did lunges, squats, and dead lifts....upping the weight for all of them. I felt good at the time, but ~24 hours later I was hurting.

I headed out for an 8 mile run last night and it was a pain in the butt.....literally! The actual run went a lot better than I expected - I felt strong and easily held a 8:50 pace the entire time. But man did my butt and hamstring muscles hurt! I went to get in my car after I was done and it hurt to sit down!

So my dilemma is this - when do I lift my legs? If I do it on an easy run day then I am left sore for a hard run the next day. If I do it on a hard run day then my legs are already fatigued from running, but I have the next day to recover with an easy run. I guess it will be a little trial and error!

This Week's Races

This past week, Bryan and I ran in 2 races together.

Last Sunday we ran in the The Team Hoyt 5k in Waltham. I have talked about Rick and Dick Hoyt before in my blog as they are two people whom I really admire in running. Due to some health problems, they were not able to run Boston this past year, which was a disappointment for me. When I heard about their 5k, I knew I wanted to participate. Bryan and I ran it together which was really nice to push each other. It was a fairly hilly course and although I didn't get a PR, I did manage to come in 1st place in my age group!! They had a pizza party after and introduced some other families that had come from NH and NJ with their children who have disabilities. It was a a special event to participate in and the highlight of the day for me was getting to meet Rick and Dick and getting my picture taken with them.


Then on Thursday evening we ran in The Blues 4.2 mile Race, part of a 5 race summer series. Its a fun race with music, a BBQ, and free Harpoon beer after the run. Last year, Bryan always beat me by a couple minutes....enough time for him to grab water and walk back over to the finish line to watch me finish. This year was different though....we ran together for the first 3.5 miles and were both feeling good. With about 1/2 mile to go, he picked up the pace a bit and started to pull away from me. I wasn't going to let that happen this year so I tried hard to keep behind him. Although I didn't beat him, he was surprised to see me finish just 18 seconds behind him (watch time =31:16; gun time = 31:42)!! That's 3 minutes faster than my best time last year.....looks like my track work and tempo runs are working! My goal for these races over the summer is to (1) beat Bryan and (2) finish under 30 minutes......you can bet that I am going to work really hard at #1 :)