First things first, in June, I PR'ed my 5K!! 23:28--I never thought I'd get to that point. I'm only 30 seconds shy of beating my first ever 5K time by 10 minutes. Sheesh. The funny thing is, the Chocolate Miracle Race was going to be an "easy" run, because I had a long run to do the following day. My friend Alex ran the race with me and decided the same. However, after we got through the first mile in 8 minutes and had been talking the whole time, we decided to at least keep that pace up. Somewhere along the line, one of us kicked it up a bit, and the other didn't want to lag behind. Three months later, we still can't decide which one of us it was. I came in fifth in my age group, and with about thirty women in it, I'm happy with that result.
I must also say this about the Chocolate Miracle Race--it was really well organized! They had a great course--it was mostly pretty flat, with the only hills coming around the halfway point. Afterward, there were a lot of snacks and drinks, though I heard they ran out of water and Gatorade! I did see people hauling in 5-gallon jugs of water, so at least they had that much. I guess that's one thing I'd suggest fixing, but fortunately for me, I didn't run into the problem. There were also chocolate chip cookies from Chocolate World, which was exactly how I got my mother-in-law to come do the one-mile walk. They're delicious, especially after a run.
Next, marathon training is starting to wind down. I did my last 20-miler yesterday and felt great. I was especially surprised at this because I ran 12 miles on Saturday. 32 miles in 2 days = phew, time for a cheeseburger. I also did the first half marathon of the run at marathon pace, maybe even a few seconds per mile less, so I'm feeling good. The mileage talk brings me to a question that has been bugging me for a while:
Do you always stick to your training plan, every run, every time?
I'm on the Pfitz 18/55 plan, and it's been--tough. I mean, obviously it's tough to do any training plan, but when I say "tough," I mean, life gets in the way a lot, especially in the summer. Every time I miss a training run, I feel incredibly guilty. And I know that even Pete Pfitzinger recognizes in his book that life happens and you just have to do the best you can with the time you've got, but there were so many times throughout this plan that I had to cut runs short because it was getting dark (or, in the morning, it wasn't light enough for long enough before work to get all the miles in), I had somewhere to be, or whatever else. Like I said, I felt great yesterday and feel very minimal soreness today, and maybe that's my best gauge of where I stand, but it's still frustrating. I often liken it to when I was on Weight Watchers and I'd go over my points. You know it's flexible, but you're still disappointed in yourself.
Please let me know your thoughts on sticking to your marathon training plans and how you gauge where you stand with regard to your training!
P.S. I promise to be better about posting. Really!
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