Being in Ryan's Territory. Run, Ryan, Run

Marathon Plan - Regressive Countdown - Week Fourteen
08/25/08 - 08/31/08
Week Total: 25.6

I started to sweat profusely just after 0.5 miles of the warm up for my weekly interval session. I didn't feel dizzy at all but certainly I felt too hot... My husband recommended me to stop, so I did. I stood for some minutes in front of the fan, and decided to do leg curls, extensions and abduction/adduction workout. No clear explanation for my extreme sweat... unless it was... a hot flash? Oh My, I am old.

On Wednesday I needed to do some short run to replace my failed interval mileage. I ran 4 miles at the beach and they were particularly slow, way slow, 13:45. This was slower than my marathon pace of 13:35... WHAT'S GOING ON? After some thought I remembered the phrase "if you always run slow you will be an expert running slow". I've learned to keep the pace in the treadmill as I became its slave (Seattle's weather.... hot weather in the back east...) , but keeping the pace on the road has become a challenge , especially, having lost all my running gadgets. TIME TO STOP. Needed to do a further evaluation of my paces and determined them again.

Following McMillan calculator, which is a "method that estimates your equivalent race performances using a current race time at any distance" I should be running the Marathon in 4:42:53 at a pace of 10:48, given my 9:21 for my best 5K of the year. No way... There is NO WAY I can do that. McMillan mentions that although these are estimates they are accurate. Could they be accurate for me? I only wish. But in my wishes, I decided to get more serious. My plan continues to be Furman's Marathon plan with the optimal training paces proposed by McMillan.

Friday was my trial. My plan indicated a warm up of one mile, a tempo of 5 miles, and a cool down of another mile, for a total of 7 miles. Paces? My warm up/cool down around 12 min/mile, and my long tempo at 10:15. With a "no feet dragging" as a mandate I finished the tempo at 11:24 average. I'll try to nail next tempo at 10:15, but at least this was much better than a 4-miler at 13:45.

My long run should be at 12:18. I ran a 14.6 miler at 12:28.... NOT BAD AT ALL....

For the long holiday weekend my hubby and I went to the mountains to Big Bear Lake, Ryan Hall's city of birth. Even though the Olympics ended one week ago and Ryan finished 10th, the marathon still was on the air. It was cool to be there and see the support his community gave him. Seeing banners all over town, I felt pretty happy being in Ryan's Territory. Run, Ryan, Run.