Tuesday, February 16, 2010

128.8

At 47 days into 2010, that's how many miles I should have run after the end of today in order to reach my 1,000 mile goal for the year.



So far this year, I have run 49.1 miles. I'm considerably short of my goal at this point. I will need to make up almost 80 miles throughout the rest of the year.



I know that I can achieve this.



There are 318 days remaining, and I have 950.9 miles left to run. That averages out to just a hair under 3 miles per day, or 21 miles per week.



(I'm a math geek, I can't help it).



21 miles per week, I can do. I have two marathons planned for the year, I have no excuse for not running an average of 21 miles per week. Never mind that I did it last year. If I can do that much training, my speed will have no choice but to improve, and as promised I'm not even going to mention my weight.



This weekend, I'm headed to Florida to run the A1A Half Marathon in Ft Lauderdale. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully the short vacation will re-energize me.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Do You Know?

Yesterday, I ran the Fly with the Eagles Half Marathon at the Crab Orchard wildlife refuge. I've been running this race every year for several years now.

I woke up yesterday morning after approximately 3 hours of sleep. I could not sleep Friday night and didn't bother to try. I drank my coffee and forgot to eat breakfast, so I ate a banana in the car with the girls on the way down. The temperature was 30 degrees and sunny. Knowing all of this, along with the minimal amount of training that I've been doing, I estimated my finish time at 2:32.

When you go to a race, do you know what your finish time will be?
I almost always know within a minute or two what my finish time will be for any given race.

On the way down, the girls were talking about how slow they would be, but they had NO idea what to expect. This absolutely boggles my mind.

Several miles of the race are inside the sanctuary on a trail that was "soft". My shoes were covered in mud after this race. Yuck! I hate getting dirty. I'm such a girl about mud. I hate it. Several runners reported seeing eagles while we were in there, but I never saw them. :-(

I felt good the entire run, but I was being careful not to run too hard, since I do have another half marathon next weekend. At Ft Lauderdale!

Given the muddy conditions, I wasn't as close as I thought to my prediction, but I still ran a 2:34. I was happy with this finish time, even though I finished LAST in my age group and was very close to being the very last finisher. Yup, these small-town races have their benefits and their drawbacks.

Benefit: It's very easy to win an age group award
Drawback: Run slower than a 9-10 minute mile and you risk finishing last.

So, the question, do you know how you will finish a race, or am I alone in this? Does predicting my time this way become a self-fulfilling prophecy and keep me from running faster?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My Old Ways, and my Last Whiny Rant

I admit it. I've reverted to the Weekend Warrior.



No running Monday - Friday, long run on the weekend.



I wish that I could find a magic cure for this problem. I don't like running after work, but I can't force myself out of bed before work. OK, Clearly I CAN force myself out of bed before work, or I CAN run after work. The fact is, it's not happening. After a long day of work, I want to snuggle into my warm clothes and rest. And, the mornings? It's dark at 5am. And, I'm lazy.



Obviously, if I'm not running, I've gotten away from strength training too. For quite some time now. I come back to it occasionally, but I slack off almost immediately.



Unfortunately, over the past 2 years, I've gained 40 lbs. I wonder if the non-running and the gain in weight are related? Hm. Seriously, I'm tired of hearing myself complain about it, as I'm sure all of those around me are tired of it as well. It's time to put up or shut up. Yes, you heard it here. I'm no longer whining and complaining about being fat. If I'm not willing to DO something about it, I'm not going to waste my time whining about it.

Half Marathon this Saturday.
Then, I travel to Florida next weekend and run the Half Marathon at Ft Lauderdale.
Hopefully, I can manage a couple of runs in between the two.



Now, does anybody have that magic cure for sleeping in?