Warm weather, pacing, speed, thoughts.

Sometimes one reads and doesnt register the meaning of the words. And I am not talking philosophy here.

We had bought Jeff Galloways book'Marathon' in Dec. and kept reading it off and on. Today I actually understood the meaning(I think!!) of the table with temps and how much each 5degrees brings down our speed. For each 5 degrees above 60degree F, speed drops by 30-40 sec. Which means that today our session of 14.6min mile at 72 degrees could have been at 13.6min mile.

Somewhere else I read that marathon training pace is always a min slower than marathon race pace, i.e. one can run the marathon at a min per mile faster than the LSD buoyed on by the enthusiasm of the crowd etc.

Keeping the above 2 factors in mind I actually might be able to run tha marathon at 12minmile. WOW!!

OK, I am just kidding. I didnt add the increase in speed if I lost 10 pounds by M-day.

No, all this is the result of getting too nervous about the looming M-Day date. ANd I dont know why I am feeling like this now, today was actually a good day and our speed on the shorter runs is increasing slowly.

Lets see, walk tomorrow.

LSD 9 miles

9 miles in 132 min, 14.6minmile.

Started at 4.44AM, still dark, no traffic, temp72degrees with a slight cool breeze. But I think it must have been warmer because I was sweating in no time.
Today had a strategy for once. Decided to R3min/W2min and it worked good for quite some time. Till we came to a big bad hill at 3 miles which we walked up, and then ran more than 10 min but it was all a slow down hill. Did the same route as GB last week, had another hill at 7 miles, which we again walked up. Finished the whole session by 7 AM and the sun wasnt even up today.

Today felt very tired at the end of it, dont know why, because I had hydrated well yesterday and had a good carbohydrate laden dinner. I guess these things happen. But satisfied.

Am dreading the 23 miles next weekend. That might bring me down. Have to psych myself for it, have 6 days to prepare for it.

Day 301 of Marathon Preparation

Actually had meant to write yesterday- day 300, but today is OK too.

301 days of pursuing a goal. 301 days of thinking, planning, agonising, giving up and then taking up again, wondering, writing about this one goal, and its not over yet. That decision will be made on October 19th 2008.

Yesterday was in a different mood, body and mind not wanting to push it. It was a walk only day for me but I had planned on doing fast walk intervals , but just could not do it. Not even the sight of GB running in front of me. So 3.58miles in 65 min. Slow, I know.Then came back and read a great man's thoughts--the gist of which was, that the person who follows their mind cant acheive much in life. That one has to control one's mind which tries to lure one down the easy path. Was too tired to do anything about my mind yesterday, barely cooked dinner and went off to sleep at 9 pm, right after Hilary Clinton gave her talk at the Democratic Convention- where does she get the energy, that fire , that enthusiasm, amazing! I am jealous.

This morning followed the same routine and told myself that I would be faster today, even if by 10 sec. And I guess I was- dont have any fancy gadgets, just my trusty cell phone to tell the time, I reached home at 56 min, and I am happy about that. Next week will try and shave off another min off this distance.

Walk tomorrow, rest, LSD 9 miles on Sat.

Magic mile

OK, so Jeff Galloway is a genius!

I was surfing the web yesterday, all running sites, and went back to the marathon training plans at his site. He has perfected a formula which calculates your projected marathon pace depending on your mile speed at the hardest effort. So one runs a mile at the fastest speed, without puking(his words), and multiply that time by 1.3 to get the marathon pace.

So this morning I ran a mile at my hardest pace- still came out to be 14minmile and so what do u think my marathon pace is?? a very slow 18.2minmile. Which means I will be finishing my marathon in 8 hours. Which means there is no need for me to go to San francisco this October or else they will hand me a broom and ask to sweep after the back of the pack!

So how is J.G a genius? because 18.2 was my pace at the last long distance of 18.6 miles I did. If I had known the formula before I could have just predicted my time for that session as more than 5 hours instead of thinking naively that I could cover 20 miles in 5 hours.

Of course when I did this mile, it was the first mile of the day, and what he is recommending is doing a mile warmup , followed by the magic mile, followed by easy run, so to include this in the shorter LSD. On top of this I had bad shin splints today, dont know why as I have been stretching off and on . Also GB was not there to push me to run a tad bit faster, or to try and walk at 4mph instead of 3.5mph. Not that the absence of any of those factors would have helped me run faster.

So this is where we stand, 50 days before the M-day.
Is there any way we can increase our pace at this point-- I dont know. But hope sustains life, and I am hopeful, or have my head stuck in sand - in denial.

And just for some information- to complete a marathon in 6.5 hours, my magic mile should be run in 11 min. Ha Ha ... ha ha!!

LSD 8miles, strategies, when GB runs!!!

So we did our LSD today, 8.2miles in 117 min, 14.2minmile, I cant go over this enough!

Started at 4.35 AM from my house, nce starry sky, breezy,felt good. Met with GB at the junction and GB was in the mood today to just rock it! She started off with running and walking alternating between the red lights. And she ran faster than normal and walked faster than normal, so that I was lagging behind, huffing and puffing.After 2 miles she wanted to try the r3min/w2min routine so we started that- it was better for me.

Then at 4 miles we reached our first bad hill- 200 ft ascent over half a mile. We walked up this hill and remembered a day approx 6 mnths ago when GB had literally died at the sight of this hill. Today we just walked till the top- it wasnt easy, but we didnt take any breaks and our pace was smooth thru out. Then came aabout a mile of gradual descent which we ran at a good pace. Went down the 2nd hill and after 5 min I turned back because today the DH is on call and I had to be home by 6.30 AM to pack his lunch.

Going back faced the 2nd hill and I again walked at a consistent speed. Finished with running till the house. I honestly thought I had done less than 8 miles today but I was satisfied because I had done 2 hills in these 8 miles . Kept trying to push myself during the last stretch just to get a lesser time.

Came home and after doing the breakfast/lunch stuff, sat with mapmyrun. And was so pleasantly surprised to see I had done 8.2 miles! I mapped it out 3 times and called GB to confirm, which she did. And in a good time. I think she covered more in the last bit to her house, she will log it in.

So I am satisfied today- now in the next 50 days to get the short runs down to a speed of 13.5minmile and the LSD to 14 minmile with hills. Can u believe it - only 50 days left?

Walk tomorrow, 4 miles, will try and include a hill.

Panic Mode!!!

No, it wasn't the meeting at 6 am, it was the constant state of panic I am in nowadays. There is a marathon in 59 days and I still cannot walk 15 miles without wanting to fall over and die!!! The long run last Saturday pushed the panic button. Before that the long runs had been easier (yes, because they were smaller!) and I was getting curious why people thought marathons were tough - last Saturday gave me the answer :(
I wasn't really giving the marathon much thought since it was farrr away, but now, since it's closer, completing it doesnt seem feasible. I have been talking about this continously with NB (not during the runs, I have stopped talking during the runs - we are not strolling in a park, we have a marathon to run :() and then hoping later that she doesnt get scared.
I am in a habit of working on things at the last moment, Yes - not a good habit, but I am really hoping it is not too late this time :(
I went for a run from monday to thursday this week (rest day tomorrow, though I think we shouldnt take it, but guess need to to prevent injuries), tried to control food intake and tried to do Wii Fit for atleast 45 mins everyday. Have to, have to, have to continue with this and slowly increase walking speed to be able to complete the mararthon in 6.5 hours which is slightly less than 15 min mile. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

R/W, Effort!

Did 4.1m in 57-58 min, a 14minmile. WOW! It all boils down to effort and mind over matter and a very motivated GB who made me run all the way and kept pushing even if I lagged behind and made me run even if she trailed behind.
It could also be due to the fact that she had a 6AM meeting to attend.

I simply couldnt believe my time, so I recalculated the distance and asked my husband twice that 4.58 AM to 5.55 AM is 57 min.

I know that 4 miles in 57 min is not great, and we should actually be able to repeat it 6 times now to complete a marathon, but atleast we came out of our comfort zone and did some huffing and puffing.

So, good job GB and NB , keep it up.

On a side note, came home and did some yoga stretches for 15 min and now feel as good as new.All set to start my day as mom,wife,worker bee, friend etc etc etc.