Mile 6. Stopped to take a GU. Mmm, chocolatey. I start running again and all is not well in inner-thigh-ville. I think, maybe I just need to re-warm up. Mile 6.5 I am by the side of the road, crying, and calling a cab.

:\ I can’t really walk that well right now so I’m in bed waiting for my dad to get here from MD and take me to the hospital.

I hope this won’t lay me up for long… I would hate to not be able to complete my marathon training. That said, I want to heal this the right way. If taking a few weeks off and maybe missing out on the National Marathon is what I need to do to get better, so be it. There will be other marathons; I’m still young.

But I would be crushed. :(

Weekly Total: 39 miles

• Monday 11/30 (Rest)

• Tuesday 12/1 (5 miles Easy)
  Today was our “After” mile test for my running class – we timed ourselves in the beginning of the year (September) and now was our chance to see if we’d improved! I don’t really think that using the mile as a baseline makes sense because we didn’t focus on speedwork, but I improved anyway – 7:05 this time versus 7:42 in September. Quite an improvement! I warmed up and cooled down by running to class and back.
  5.2 miles / 47:00 / 9:03

• Wednesday 12/2 (8 miles Tempo)
  A little bit of pain in my left foot – probably because I didn’t stretch very well after the mile on Tuesday :( I made sure to stretch out super well after this run, and did my favorite Runner’s Yoga routine. The track was packed! ROTC was practicing and there were tons of local runners there as well.
  7.5 miles / 1:12:00 / 9:35

• Thursday 12/3 (6 miles Marathon Pace)
  Our last PE class! I ran 5 miles beforehand to get my miles in for the day and then headed to class (a little late…. whoops) and did the PACER test. If you don’t know what that is, count yourself lucky. I did improve, though, which is nice! And after running 5 miles, too!
  Then we did a great core workout with a stability ball. We ended up laughing too hard to stay on the balls, but we did get a few good workouts in. And I learned new exercises to do with my stability ball! Success.
  On a less successful note, I had two tests today and they were rough. Luckily everyone else thought so too, so I am guessing I didn’t do as bad as I thought I did, but it never feels good to get a low grade on a test, even if the average was lower.
  6 miles / 55:00 / 9:09
  

• Friday 12/4 (Rest)
  Sleeping in and resting :) Did yoga and felt great!

• Saturday 12/5 (14 miles – long run)
  I did it! Snow and all.
  14 miles / 2:19:00 / 9:55
  

• Sunday 12/6 (6 miles Easy)
  I didn’t go out with CTRC today :( Call me a wimp buy icy trails do not sound like fun. Maybe someday! I slept in and did my 6 mile loop instead. For some reason my recovery runs always feel harder than my long runs… Is that true for anyone else or am I just weird? I’ll do some yoga and weights later, but for now I’m off to the grocery. I need more greek yogurt!

  I saw some ducks on my run today – I’ll post the picture as soon as I upload it!

  6 miles / 58:00 / 9:51

This week felt great. I think I am going to try to introduce some speedwork next week! Since I don’t have running class anymore I’ll have a bit more control over my running schedule.

Happy running, everyone!

• Monday 11/23 (Rest)
  Did some yoga and some stretching – more on my new strength goal soon!

• Tuesday 11/24 (5 miles Easy)
  We did a 5k in our running class today, which was tons of fun. I ran it in about 26 minutes at a pretty comfortable pace, which is great – it beats my May 16th time of 26:22 and I wasn’t even really pushing it! I can’t wait to race another 5k to see how I’ve improved this year.  I threw in a warm up/cool down to hit 4.5 miles.
  4.5 miles / 39:27 / 8:56

• Wednesday 11/25 (8 miles Tempo)
  I was back home in MD for this run – and man am I allergic to something in my house. :( I had pretty bad asthma in the morning, so I called it quits after 3 miles, but in the afternoon I headed out again to dominate the other 5 of my workout.
  3.02 miles / 28:24 / 9:24
  4.25 miles / 38:03 / 8:57

• Thursday 11/26 (4 miles Marathon Pace)
  Turkey Trot 10k! My race report.
  6.2 miles / 52:00 (unofficial time) / 8:25ish
  

• Friday 11/27 (Rest)
  Shopping!

• Saturday 11/28 (14 miles – long run)
  Ouch… asthma killed this long run at mile 7. I felt pretty bad about calling it a day when I’d only done about half the miles I had planned on, but my lungs were just not cooperating. So I decided to take this as an opportunity to have a cut-back week. I’ve been going pretty hard for two months now, and I could probably use the break to recover a bit. Silver lining? I think so.
  13.1 miles / 2:06:05 / 9:37
  

• Sunday 11/29 (5 miles Easy)
  The CTRC back home was doing a “tour de Rivanna Trail” run today, which is a 20+ mile loop of the trail system in Charlottesville. Congrats to everyone who finished! It sounded like a lot of fun. I went to the local lake in MD and pounded out 2 loops – it was gorgeous at the park. I wish I’d taken a picture! My dad came with me and walked the opposite direction.

  My favorite part about this lake is that there’s always the “regulars.” Asian SARS lady (she wears a face mask every day), lady who runs in work clothes (she wears like, button down shirts… it’s confusing…), the park ranger, and the awesome guy who cheers me on every time I pass him. I love all my park peeps!
  4.75 miles / 43:45 / 9:12
  

This week was tough. The asthma setbacks were frustrating to say the least. But it was probably good to have had a week off, especially after my two half marathon long runs. 14 miler this Saturday – wish me luck!

• Monday 11/16 (Rest)
  My legs were *so* glad today to have a day off. Even though I take things pretty slow on Sundays after my Saturday long run, it’s still the hardest run of the week.

• Tuesday 11/10 (5 miles Easy)
  At my PHYE class we went on a “distance run” and I ended up running around grounds with a fellow classmate – we had a great time chatting! I took her on one of my favorite loops on grounds.
  6.5 miles / 1:00:03 / 9:41

• Wednesday 11/11 (8 miles Tempo)
  Another great tempo run! The 9:26 pace actually feels pretty good. I did my normal tempo route and added in 2 miles on the track. The eventual goal is to be able to do 10 miles at this pace with very few rest intervals. :) Getting there!
  8.50 miles / 1:20:00 / 9:26

• Thursday 11/12 (4 miles Marathon Pace)
  I actually skipped my running class today :\ I had a lot going on in the afternoon and there was a H1N1 vaccine clinic during my running class that I wanted to go to. So I woke up, ran early, studied for my test, and then went out to go get my flu shot. It poured. I was wearing a rain coat and I still came home soaked to the bone. Not fun.
  4.05 miles / 39:00 / 9:31
  

• Friday 11/13 (Rest)

• Saturday 11/14 (12 miles – long run)
  I made this 12 miler another half marathon – it was great! Recap here.
  13.1 miles / 2:06:05 / 9:37
  

• Sunday 11/15 (5 miles Easy)Just another group run with the local Trail Running Club! We had a blast. There were some new folks there, including a really cute boy (!!) and my runner friend Carli who I see all the time around grounds but haven’t run with in a while. She’s training for a 35 or 50k in January – she hasn’t decided which yet.

  John told us about how he was out on the trails on Wednesday and saw a BEAR. Luckily it was dead (very, very dead, apparently) — but still, it’s kind of strange that there was one this close to the university.A bit further than I had planned to go today. I’m having trouble figuring out how I can get to and from the trails without using up my recovery miles just getting there.

  7.55 miles / 1:16:00 / 10:03

Another great week of marathon training. I’m feeling better about my long run – last week I was worried about my pace for my half marathon – but this week’s long run proves that I can do it at a faster pace. Woohoo! Week 5 here I come!

The Rotunda at 8:40 this morning on my way to CTRC!

I’m feeling really good about my training at this point. Things seem to be going right – I hope that saying so doesn’t jinx it! The Half made it really clear that I need to do some hillwork, so I’ll plan on turning some of my M-pace runs into hill sessions. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Weekly Total: 34 miles

• Monday 11/9 (Rest)

• Tuesday 11/10 (5 miles Easy)
  5.11 miles / 48:00 / 9:27

  We were supposed to do the timed mile in class, but a lot of people were sick, so we just did a few miles on the track. Since my legs were kind of still recovering from yesterday’s class, I was glad to not have to do the mile test – I know I have improved since August and I want to be able to do my best!Other than that, an uneventful 5 miles.

• Wednesday 11/11 (6 miles Tempo)
  6.00 miles / 55:00 / 9:08
  I got to practice my rain-and-puddle-evasion technique. I have to say it didn’t help much. Still, I was proud of myself for dragging my legs out of their warm cozy covers at 6am and heading out into the torrential downpour that was the weather this morning. It’s a good thing I love running, or else convincing myself that a 6 mile tempo run was better than an hour of sleep in my dark room listening to the rain on the roof would have been really difficult.

• Thursday 11/12 (4 miles Marathon Pace)
  4.00 miles / 40:00 / 10:00
  An easy run on the treadmill in my running class – just keeping things loose for the run on Saturday!

• Friday 11/13 (Rest)
  Cue freaking out about the half tomorrow! I must have asked myself the question “Why did I not actually train for this? What was I thinking?!?!” about a million times. Things turned out well, though, and now I feel better about my mental running strength knowing that I toughed out a really hard race and didn’t give up.

• Saturday 11/14 (Half Marathon at Walnut Creek – 13.1 miles)
  13.1 miles / 2:30:59 / 11:27
  
  Race report here

• Sunday 11/15 (6 miles Easy)
  5.5 miles / 55:00 / 10:00

  No Charlottesville Trail Running Club group run today – since all of the “regulars” did the half the day before, no one was really feeling up for a group run on the trails. I was happy to hit the road, though, and give my legs a good stretching post-race. Nothing like a nice 5+ miler to get things feeling good again!

Riverview Park on Saturday Morning

My schedule this week was as follows:

• Monday: (Rest)
• Tuesday: (5 miles at Easy Pace)
  During my PHYE Running for Fitness class we did an indoor run on the treadmill/indoor track, completely wasting the beautiful weather! What a shame. But the treadmill wasn’t as bad as I thought, and I got my fill of the outdoors running to the gym for class and back.
  5.12 miles – 48 minutes – 9:22 pace
• Wednesday: 6 miles at Tempo Pace
  Cold this morning! I had to break out the gloves and headband. Glad that I toughed it out instead of staying warm under the covers.
  6 miles – 54 minutes – 8:58 pace
  
• Thursday: 4 miles at Marathon Pace
  To and from the gym for our deep water run for PE. Great workout! I think I prefer swimming though.
  4 miles – 39 minutes – 9:37 pace
  
• Friday: Rest
  I actually didn’t rest today. It was too nice out! So I laced up and went out for an easy (really, really easy) two miles around grounds. I was worried about it affecting my long run, but as you’ll see below my long run was the best I’ve had in a long time!
  2.3 miles – 23 minutes – 10:00 pace
  
• Saturday: 10 mile Long Run
  This run was AMAZING. I was supposed to meet up with a friend but she was sick, so I headed down to a park I’d raced in a few weeks ago (for the Fall Classic) and it was gorgeous. Perfect weather, running along the river, and magical runners high for 6 out of the 10 miles. I felt great. My heart rate for this run was also very low in comparison to other long runs from the past few weeks – awesome! An effortless, beautiful run.
  10.67 miles – 1:45 hours:minutes – 9:49 pace
  
• Sunday: 6 mile Trail Run (recovery)
  I always love getting out with the group (CTRC) but this run was a bit fast for me as a recovery run. I’ll have to learn to slow it down even when the group is going on ahead! After this run I was definitely looking forward to resting on Monday.
  6 miles – 58 minutes – 9:39 pace

I’m going to start monitoring my resting heart rate to make sure I’m not overtraining. Next week is my trail half marathon at Walnut Creek. #1 goal is not to get injured (this is the course I fell down on 4 times two weeks ago, still have bruises) and #2 is to finish!

It has begun! I am 7 runs into my 21-week training schedule, with 50 miles knocked out so far. This weekend I have a 10 miler and a 6 miler scheduled, I’ll probably do the 10 miler solo on the roads on Saturday and then join the CTRC for the Sunday run. I’m very excited because the Sunday run has been pushed back to 9am from 8am, so I get to sleep in for an extra hour!

I’ll be running a half marathon on the 14th of November at Walnut Creek – it’s a very hilly course and it will be my first half, so I’m not looking to set any world records here, but it is a beautiful trail and I’m sure I’ll have a blast! Last time I was out at Walnut Creek I managed to fall three times during the run (the bruises are spectacular) so hopefully I can bring that number down next Saturday.

This Week:

M – no run! Just relaxing and doing some homework.
T – A very fun 5 miles run on the road, the treadmill, and the track. I was very surprised to have run at an average pace of 9:20 for these miles! I need to slow down my recovery miles for sure.
W – Weekly tempo run, 6 miles scheduled
Th – For running class we’re doing a deep water run at the gym, and I’ll get in my scheduled 4 miles around that somehow
F – Another rest day! Probably weights and core training.
S – 10 mile long run @ Marathon Pace
Su – 6 miles with CTRC @ Easy pace

Weekly Mileage: 35 miles

Happy running!

I’ll be using this training plan from Runners World, and I think I’m going to aim for an average of 10:00 miles (4:22 marathon). But I’ll be happy just to finish :) I’m very excited and I’m looking forward to the training. The first thing I need to find out is what my mileage should be before the 16 week training period begins. It looks like there are some great books out there – if I find any particularly useful ones I’ll post them here.

162 days to go!