Last Saturday, 1-19-2013, we had an 18 mile run scheduled. Throughout the week I was pumped. I ran my 5 mile, 9 mile, and 5 mile run then rested up for my long run. Tiffany and I agreed to meet up at 7am. Our friend Veronica met us too. She’s training for the half and had a 6mile run scheduled. We ran the first 3 miles at an easy 10min/mile pace. Veronica had her turn around there and Tiffany and I continued. We walked a minute after the first 3 miles and then ran 1 mile, walked 1 minute..etc. At about mile 12.5 we passed by the FW Running Co training group. Mario, an ultra marathoner and coach for the group began running with along side of us. As he chatted with us and told us stories a mile went by and then another. Our pace sped up too! What I thought was the coolest was while we were talking not one of us was out of breath, we carried on conversation and our breathing wasn’t labored! He said, “You know you’re a runner when your long runs become your short ones.” I thought about the begining of this training program and it was just in November (the Saturday before Thanksgiving), that our “long run” was 9 miles. Here we were on that Saturday, our long run was double that and in the middle of the week we had a 9 mile run. I felt a sense of accomplishment for sure. Mario also said, “To run faster, train slower.” Interesting concept. Our training plan specifically says to slow down our long runs up to 1 minute slower than marathon pace. Anyway, when we reached our turnaround, we were at mile 14, 4 miles left! Mario ran 2 more miles with us before he reached his stop and we ran the last 2 on our own. It was at that point that I became super HUNGRY! We went to Panera had our post run bagel and coffee and basked in our glory. 🙂
We have our set back week this week (1/22-1/26). Monday-5, Tuesday 9 (I ran 8), and Wed 5 (I walked/ran 2 and completed a Pilates DVD-20mins). Thursday rest, Friday rest and Saturday 14miles.
Today at work I received a text from Tiffany, letting me know about a half marathon this Saturday. So we’re going to do that instead of the 14 miles, 13.1 at a race. We’re going to try to PR this one. Tiffany’s last PR was 2:10 mine was 2:22 but at a training run of 13.1 miles we finished at 2:10 so I know I will do better. Another cool thing is that we can just run a half marathon, just like that. Before training for this full marathon, I thought of a half marathon as pretty daunting and prepping before. Our goal to shoot for is between 2:00-2:09. I think we can do it! So excited! I’m registering for it tomorrow. 🙂