The Week in Running

I've been a little bit M.I.A. lately. Sorry about that. What happened is that I write for a living and I had a lot of work writing going on that was sucking up all of my brain power. So the last thing that I wanted to do when I wasn't working was write some more.

So here is quick catch up.

Tuesday: 4

Wednesday: 6

Friday: 11

Saturday: 2.7

Total: 23.7

Not only did the week contain my longest run ever (!), I also logged the most miles ever in a week and I got to do a "fun run" with my good buddy, hot mother runner Ms. Marcey.

Bad iPhone self-portrait. Sorry. <3 you Marcey!

Now I'm less than a week away from the half marathon. Surprisingly, I feel pretty calm and prepared. I've completed over 260 miles of training for this thing. I'm ready for it. This week I'm going to take it pretty easy, probably running just 3 or 4 miles three nights for a total of 11-12ish miles.

So far the weather is looking awesome. Unlike the Virginia is for Lovers 14k, I am not worried at all about the forecast.

Let me just report briefly on the 11 miler. Prabir had to bail on me for this little thing called SXSW (you know, just a little music festival down in Texas that his band Goldrush is playing this year). I guess I can forgive him.

The evening was perfect though. When I started out it was about 63 degrees with a little breeze. The course I had planned took me up and back the Main Street Gauntlet of Restaurants for the first 5.5 miles or so, then a loop back out Monument Avenue and back to the Downtown Y for the last leg. The problem was that I forgot what my turn around point was on Monument Avenue... sooooo I ended up running about .15 miles too far down Monument.

Usually this wouldn't be a problem and it doesn't sound like a lot (.3 extra miles). But let me tell you, when my Garmin beeped 11 miles, I was not taking one. more. step. It beeped and I was still 6 blocks away from the Y and it had turned cold and windy, so I was pretty darn cold during that power walk back to my car.

But I did it. I ran 11 miles and it actually didn't feel terrible. As usual, miles 2, 3, 6, and 7 felt hard at times. The last 2 miles felt fine.  Shockingly fine.

Mile 10 was a little on the slow side because I stopped to stretch for a few seconds. For some reason, my Garmin suddenly stopped tracking my moving pace vs. elapsed time. I didn't hit many stop lights during the 11 miles, but I did stop briefly to stretch a few times, so I think my actual moving time was closer to 1:40. If I manage to run this pace on Sunday, I just might  run a sub 2:00 half.

We'll see. At this point, I'll just be happy to finish!