All about flexability

Now that the Olympics are over I am no longer a slave to my TV, watching as much coverage as I could (don't get me started on how NBC snubbed many of my favorite track and field events to show every quarterfinal and semifinal round of the 100m). So I figured I would take some time to update you on my training.

If I had to sum up my training so far into one word it would be flexibility. You see, this winter I was pretty anal about my training schedule....ok so I was very anal. If my schedule said to do a certain run on a certain day then I did it....no excuses. This summer has been quite different. In fact I don't know if I've followed one single week of my training exactly as I had written. Don't get me wrong, I'm still hitting my key workouts and getting most of my planned miles in. It seems that my schedule this summer has been so busy (didn't think I was that popular did you??) that I've needed to relax a bit on my training. I think that's a good thing......sometimes we need a little flexibility in our lives.

Three weeks ago I ran my first 20 miler. I ran with Janette, John, and Paul around the river on a cooler than usual Saturday morning. It was a great run because, for the first time this training cycle, this long run felt fairly easy. Yes, I was pushing hard towards the end, but it was one of those runs that everything clicked and I was my normal, chatty self. Total weekly miles = 50

Two weeks ago I had my first marathon specific long run....15 miles total with 12 at planned marathon pace. I did this run at my in-laws house in upstate NY on a hilly bike path. I was pretty anxious about this run, being out of my usual setting, and having to hit paces faster than my typical long run pace. But the run went well.....I was a little slow at the start and you can see where I hit some major hills, but I finished with an average pace of 8:21 for the marathon pace miles. Perfect!! This week also included a 15 mile medium-long run on Wednesday.....ouch! Total weekly miles = 48

Last week was a recovery week and I think my body needed it. I did have a great track workout on Wednesday where I did 7 miles total with 5 x 600m repeats with 90 seconds recovery between each. My 600m splits were: 2:32, 2:32, 2:30, 2:33, 2:33....pretty consistent! Later in the week my left calf and right glut were a little tight. I got a massage and did a couple easy runs and it seemed to work itself out. I cut my long run for the week (14 miles) short because I just wasn't feeling it......rather than beating myself up about it, I just kept saying "tomorrow is another day." Total weekly miles = 24

As you can see I am getting lots of miles in (although never as many as I would like!) even though I'm not always doing them on the days my schedule says. I am learning to turn off my type A personality and inject a little flexibility. After all......its just running :)