Thursday, October 19, 2006

I am in Week 9 - wow!

I just happened to take a serious look at my training schedule and realized I am in Week 9 of 16! It sure doesn't seem like it. After this week's 20 miler, there's only 6 more weeks until the Las Vegas Marathon!!! That being the case, I decided it was time to book the trip. So I arranged the package that I have put together several times over the past couple of months, with a few minor tweaks, and this time I clicked the "Submit" button. Now I just have to register for the marathon. But my gosh, the price doesn't go up until November 20th, so I'll probably wait a little longer to do that. I prefer to hold on to the money as long as possible unless there is a monetary incentive to register early. Just ask Michele...she doesn't care for that side of me. haha.

So all this leads me to another question - Am I the only one doing this thing?!?!?! Good grief, there's tons of people talking about Chicago. There's always a few coming to Nashville for CMM. Michele is already signed up for Memphis. David's doing Huntsville; Lance is doing Dallas...what's the deal? It's Vegas, Baby! C'mon!! I LOVE some Black Jack. Maybe I'll go Google "Las Vegas Marathon" and see if I can find anyone else.

Here's what's been going on in Week 9. Tuesday - speedwork. This was crazy. I went to the track on my lunchbreak, and students started coming out on the track right after my warmup.

"Great."

So I asked the P.E. teacher if I needed to leave and he said "Oh no...just push them aside if they get in your way." So I said "Cool, thanks!" And started my intervals (I opted to run around the poor kids instead of pushing them aside though). Here's the numbers:

1 mile warmup 9:49
1mile Int 7:27
400 walk 4:43
2 mile Int 16:05
800 walk 9:17
800 Int 3:37
400 walk 4:28
800 Int 3:36
Cooldown: walk to the car

I didn't get to run a cooldown mile, because near the end of the 2 mile interval tons of kids started coming to the track. It didn't take long to figure out they were having some festivities, including a powder puff football game. There were students up in the pressbox on the loud speaker and everything, but I wasn't going to cut it short at that point. They all looked at me like I was idiot during the last two 800m intervals, so when the last one was finished, I grabbed my jacket and headed to the car!! I was never so glad to be off the track in my life!

Wednesday I had a great bike ride with Coworker Jack. He took me up "Brinkley Hill", which happens to be, as he pointed out, the same "ridiculous hill" that was included in my 13 mile run of Week 1. I'm not sure which was worse, biking up it, or running up it. We rode a total of 17.5 miles in 1:01:00. I did a few (not many) lunges when I got home, and some pushups and crunches since I haven't been hitting the weights lately. I've gotta get back to the gym!

Then this morning I forced myself out of bed at 5:30 a.m. for the tempo run. You just would not believe the things that my lazy streak tried to convince me of to get me to go back to bed. But thankfully I didn't, and it's a good thing, because I'd have been running in the rain had I put it off until lunch today. The run was supposed to be 6 miles (1 easy, 4 @8:06/mile, 1 easy). I don't remember the exact splits, and don't have my Garmin handy, but it was something like10:15, 8:30,8:22,8:20,8:29, 9:56. Something like that. Not on pace, but I'll take it. The tempo run is ALWAYS the hardest for me. Especially when it's early and dark outside.

7 comments:

Michele said...

Great job on those runs and good luck on your 20 miler on Sunday.

We need to get back on the same schedule again and do some runs together, I need the push.

I KNOW there are tons of bloggers out there doing Vegas. I mean who wouldn't want to.

Trisaratops said...

I think Jodi might be doing Vegas half? I will have to check her sidebar! :) She's super cool.

Nice job on the track and the tempo--and at 5:30 in the morning? Seriously. You rock. I can barely put on my slippers that early now that IM is done...I'm such a lazy bum in the mornings now!

Rice said...

Keep at the gym, you got to keep them joints and apposing strong so you don’t end up with a injury before your run.

Oh and play 19 straight up on the wheal, it’s a good one..

Cheers.

Rice.

Brooke said...

I wish I was doing Vegas. How much fun are you going to have?? Well, I guess we'll never know since what happens in Vegas....

I am on for the CMM in April though.

Phil said...

It would be nice to do Las Vegas, but I'm no were near in shape; but I'm sure there are tons of folks out there running it. I googled the following: "las vegas marathon" blogger, and got about 500 hits from runners out there in the blogsphere.

Great run this morning. I have trouble reading my watch at the end of my miles during my tempo runs in the dark also ... but you seem to be coming along really well.

Lance Notstrong said...

Vegas sounds like alot of fun, it's just that Dallas is so close I can drive there :-)

Cliff said...

Do u eat anything before u head out for those morning runs?

I normally grab a handful of raisins. Lots of sugar and fast to absorb. I get that sugar rush and I am ready to go.

Then again, I never do tempo runs on morning :).