17 Weeks to Marathon

Monday, June 1st, 2009: 45 minutes on bike. I went out and rode around LaVerkin for a while before work. By the end of the ride, the last few hills to get up to our house are rough.

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009: 5 miles in 48 minutes. I've been working on figuring out what a good steady pace would be for me. For this run I tried to keep my pace at about 9:30 per mile. I think that was just a little too fast to sustain for too long because I was pooped by the end.

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009: 3 miles at track. I went to the high school to do a speed workout. Let me tell you something - I know the speed training is important but I absolutely dread it. I hate it. It makes me question why I ever pursued this hobby.

I started off warming up for a few laps, then did 400's (1 lap around) fast followed by a slower lap (followed by a few minutes wheezing at the side of the track trying not to barf). Here's a fancy little chart of the 5 fast(er) laps I ran:

Thursday, June 4th 2009: 30 minutes on exercise bike.

Friday, June 5th 2009: Rest. My "carbo loading" day (a crude excuse to eat lots) included 3 pieces of toast, a cookie, a burrito for lunch, some Mountain Dew, and a delicious salad from Durangos.

Saturday, June 6th 2009: The Speedster - 10k race - 53 minutes!

Mel and I ran The Speedster (the 10k is around 6.2 miles) this morning, joined by a few other runners from the neighborhood.

I ran the whole race with Shane and we finished with an 8 minute 34 second average pace for the race!!! We were steady at this pace the whole time. I was worried the first few miles because I knew that was faster than I should be going and I didn't want to be on the brink of death for the last half of the race.

To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know how I was able to go that fast for that long. Normally I can run two miles at that pace but then I'm done. My body was begging, I mean BEGGING for me to stop after about 4 miles. I truly felt like I had nothing left and couldn't keep going.

But somehow I ran despite feeling like I may pass out, and despite being overheated and being on the verge of blowing chunks. The 6 miles of this race were much harder than my 15 miler last week.

Mel finished in 1 hour 3 minutes which is awesome - especially for her first race. She cut down her pace a lot also. I'm proud of her.

My 53 minute time put me in the top 3 finishers for my age division so I won a medal which I was really happy about. That is the hardest I've ever worked for a $3 piece of metal.