A Running Update

Wow, it has been awhile since I have blogged. Since I started this mainly for "triathlon" purposes, I thought I'd give a running update first. I have a marathon coming up on December 13. I'm pacing Maureen, my HUD BFF, to break 5 hours at White Rock. Then I have my first "ultra," the Cowtown 50K (31 miles) on February 27.

I wanted to run 20 miles on Saturday, but I knew that was a lofty goal considering I hadn't run long the weekend before, and I did 10 miles two previous weekends ago. Shawna and I met on the Trinity and ran 10 miles together (I averaged 9:53, which I was happy with) and ended up stopping at Panera and getting coffee. So the next morning I did the same route by myself. I negative split (out in 10:04 average, back in 9:33 average) and ran almost a minute faster than Saturday. So I was very pleased with that. On Monday I ran 5 miles with Kit at lunch. That route has some hills since we have to go a mile on 7th Street each way to hit the Trinity Trail. We were aiming for an easy run, and we averaged 9:19 (and it actually did feel pretty easy). I ran 6 miles by myself at lunch yesterday and averaged 9:27 pace. So I am very pleased with the mileage I have put in over the past 4 days, and my feet seem to be holding up well. Now I am going under 10's with relative ease, so I think my fitness is improving.

My goal this weekend is to do a longer run (like 16 miles or so) on Saturday morning. I will probably slow it down a bit (maybe 10:15-10:30 pace). I know most people get up to 20 before a marathon, but that tends to make my feet angry. I learned a lot training for Surf City last year (and injuring myself while getting up to 20 miles and not getting to race), so I am trying to play it smarter this season. Also, I have been trying to do Bikram Yoga twice a week, and the stretching seems to play a big role in injury prevention.