Tuesday, May 31, 2005

A New Record

The 5-miler went well yesterday. My previous best (happened to be the same course) was a 50:10, and that 5 miles was the longest I had ever run.

This weekend, I ran a 43:08. Only 7 minutes faster. :)

I also ran a 7 mile long run on Saturday, and managed to keep up with part of Meredith's running group. So, I feel pretty good right now. My legs are pretty tired, though. I think this week will be a challenge.

We also painted a wall in our dining room yesterday. After a year and a half in our house, we finally have one first-floor wall painted!

Monday, May 23, 2005

My Mileage May Vary

Now we're really starting to get into the miles. Okay, at least for me. My daily runs are now averaging around four miles. This is about as high as they ever got for my half marathon, so we're headed for uncharted territory. I did a six mile long run this Saturday with the training group, which went pretty well.

I've definitely noticed that I'm feeling less pain in my legs than when I started up running again. Four this morning seemed pretty easy, even though it felt like it took forever. I guess that's the difference between running alone or with a group. The legs feel the same, but your mind gets to think about your run, instead of a conversation.

I think we're going to run a 5 mile race this weekend, which should be a decent gauge of my progress. We'll see how it goes, I've only done a 5-miler once.

I'm encouraged by the pace I'm at right now. My goals for the marathon are:

Finish
Finish in 4 hours
Finish without walking
Beat Meredith (Kidding, honey! Or...am I?! OK, yeah, kidding.)

Right now I'm running around a 9 minute/mile pace, which would get me in just under 4 hours. Now I just have to train myself to keep it up for 26 miles!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Rain, rain, it's not so bad.

This week's long run on Saturday ended up in a downpour. I found out that as long as it's warm, that really didn't matter. Well, at least for me - there was one girl in the training group who had to stop because her mascara ran into her eyes. Did four miles this week, and forgot to take a watch again. I did beat the people who were around my pace handily on the hill at the end, which gave me some confidence going into the week.

I got to go visit my family this weekend, and get to do four days of running in a row. Three miles a day, Monday through Thursday. I think this week and the next should be some of the toughest, as the mileage climbs during the week. Once my legs are used to 4 a day, it shouldn't be as bad, because it doesn't really go any higher other than weekend runs.

I'm going to get today's run out of the way right now, before work. It's nice when I can do that - gives me a long afternoon.

Oh, and Star Wars tomorrow night at 12:01! :)

Edited to add: Good run today. I think it's my fastest pace so far, but I didn't feel like I was overdoing it.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Small World

So, I finally made the jump to the Marathon-in-Training group here in Columbus.

The first run was actually pretty good. A few of us who got to the Radisson early for the informational meeting were standing around waiting for some sign of the group, lost. This would be an omen.

The front desk woman didn't have any idea where they were, but pointed us in the direction of a ballroom. Eventually, someone wandered in wearing running gear, and looking like they had a direction. So, we followed them down the hall (to the exact opposite side from the front desk's directions), and found the already-in-progress meeting.

By chance, one of the people I had met before the meeting was going to be running a similar pace to me, so we ended up running together and talking. During the conversation, I had mentioned that I was from Brecksville. She mentioned that she had a friend who went to high school there. Well, not only did he go to my school, he was actually in my class!

Somewhere along the way, we decided we were going to do the four mile option for the run, rather than the three that most people were doing. However, on the way back we realized neither of us knew where we cut off the trail to head back to the hotel. We ended up *way* past our mark, had to run up a very large hill to get back, and wound up doing close to 5 miles in the process.