Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Kicking Off With Boston... Or London For That Matter

Not that I ran them... But like if I did. Boston with my heart and bets on Ryan; London with my heart and bets on Petra. Amazing races both of them. Ryan got me jumping out of my chair during the last 10K. He did awesome and his press conference said it all. He inspires me as he always does, with his beautiful smile, and typical humbleness. He always sees a lesson to be learned, and improvement to work on. About Kara, I won't comment.

Then it came London. Though I couldn't follow Petra's race, her report caused me goose bumps. Wow, what a race she had. And she gave me so much fuel, that put me to think. And as she is more real to me than Ryan, I can follow her steps, or at least try...

With the odd year I've had, my plans are totally unclear. My body is in GBIS (Getting Back In Shape) mode. My beautiful daughter was reminding me that I have nothing to be concerned as it takes three times longer to lose what we have gained, so, I will be back in shape pretty soon. I promised that to myself. Slowly but surely. Slow to accumulate mileage - last week I logged only 5.2 miles in three runs - and slow to get speed - the first day, my pace was above 13min/mile for a short distance of 1.6 miles. But I gave grace to myself, dumb of me if I didn't. This week will be better, and so next week, and so on...

Speed will be my first shot, then distance. Planning on short local races as much as I can, meanwhile I prepare a marathon strategy. Not sure if to run a marathon this year or just prepare for Donna's in February 2010. If I run one this year, it may be Portland in October as it's close enough from home. Not sure if continuing training with Furman, or moving with Pfitz. Waiting for Petra's advice.

I am excited to be back and running. I am kicking off my year. Kicking Off With Boston... Or London For That Matter!!!

3 comments:

Petraruns said...

OK my dear I really owe you this don't I? Yes - the answer is the Pfitz. It is a hard program - I think the midweek miles are particularly hard to get used to - but they really boost your endurance quickly and then the very specific speedwork works well at increasing your speed. Running races in the course of it really helped as well as it allowed me to gauge my improvement and gave me confidence. Also - I lost 10lbs in the course of it. Sounds good? What I would say though is that you should be comfortable with a base mileage of 35 miles per week before you start the 12 week program. Even so you will be very tired..

ShirleyPerly said...

Yes, Pfitz is great marathon program that has worked for many people. But if you're someone who can't handle fairly high running mileage consistently (the lower mileage one peaks around 55MPW; the higher one at 70+MPW), then it not good. A training program is only useful if you can follow it.

Welcome back to running!!

lizzie lee said...

I agree, in regards Pfitz and handling the high mileage. So far, it doesn't work for me, as I can handle around 35. Also I am not planning on starting a marathon plan any time soon, as I have a lot to build up. But I am glad to see how different plans work for different people.

The high mileage run at mid week seems brutal!!!!