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.

Marathon Plan - Regressive Countdown - Week Fifteen
08/18/08 - 08/24/08
Week Total: 15.7

Short mileage week... Traveling to SoCal... Not much to say, only that I felt heavy legs in my long run (11.5 miles), and a very slow pace... Hoping for improvement...

Back... and with 24.5 miles!!!

Marathon Plan - Regressive Countdown - Week Sixteen
08/11/08 - 08/17/08
Week Total: 24.5

Hi friends, I've missed you as I've missed running. From July 07th till August 02nd I was pretty much in jail. 2 weeks in Huntsville, AL, and 2 weeks in Washington DC, logging very long work hours. I worked 85 hours in one of those weeks. We had a deadline, and "get it done" was the task.... As you can imagine, my priority, other than work, was to sleep... Needing to cross the country for each of these trips added to my exhaustion. I was pretty much destroyed.

The results of this involuntary hiatus was a total of 16 miles in five weeks. SIXTEEN!!!! When I do 16 miles in a week it is a low-mileage week!!!!!!! Fortunately it's over.

I started on the 11th my marathon training plan and it went way better than expected. Although I found out I lost all speed I gained during my first portion of the year, my endurance was still there.

This week#16 was not free of travel, of course. I did my speed work in Seattle, but I had again to cross the country to Philadelphia on Wednesday. When I arrived at 3pm I felt I needed to run. But it's summer, right? and Philly was HOT! So, no choice but a hot gym to run 8 miles on the treadmill. I needed to pour cold water on me every 20 minutes, as the temperature in the whole hotel was 78F!!!!!! Anyway, I felt successful.

Back home I found there was a heat wave in Seattle. So my long run on Sunday morning was at 75F. A High School in my route had their sprinklers system on and one of the valves was broken, so every time I passed I took a delicious shower to refresh myself. Another successful day completing 12.4 miles.

Happy to be back.... and with 24.5 miles!!! Now, I am going to catch up with your stories...