Richmond Marathon Training Take 2 - Week 16

How in the heck is it September 24th?

How in the heck do I only have 8 training weeks til the marathon? (Awesome?)

How the heck am I once again late on my weekly update?

Sigh.

This looks funny but at the moment I'm too lazy to fix it. Sorry.

4 runs for 35.6 miles
1 mile swim

Running miles logged so far: 348.8

Training highlights:

• New longest run ever on Saturday. The 19.1 miles took me 1:49:24, average pace around 9:00/mile.  When I finished back at the stadium, a lot of my teammates were laying in the grass, stretching, or inspecting blisters and various ailments. For whatever crazy reason, I felt absolutely fine. Yeah, I don't get it either. I felt like I must have done something wrong because I wasn't groaning or wincing. I did earn myself a nice big blister on my 3rd toe, which I was very proud of. However, it was kind of disappointing because after I popped it, it went away within a few hours. I am officially the weirdest person you know.
• Accompanying my friend Danielle as she ran her first ever 5k on Wednesday night. It was so awesome to be with her for it and see her cross a finish line for the first time. Once we were finished, I said, "So, are you going to do it again?" and she said, "Yep!" with a big smile. Seeing others discover the great feeling that comes with running a race is such a gift.
• The fabulous fall weather!!!!! After months of starting to sweat before I even start to run, being chilly before a run and then juuuuuust right during is a real treat.

Training lowlights:

• Not really a lowlight but this week's speedwork was really tough. It was 2 x (6 x 400) with 90 second rest intervals between the laps and a 2:30 rest interval between sets. I thought it would be easy to run only 1 speed lap then rest for 90 seconds. Yeah... not so much. This was definitely the hardest speed workout thus far. It probably didn't help that it was way too easy to run too fast and Greg and I were hovering between 6:50 and 7:25 minute pace. Whoops.

Hydration Belt Status:

• Unsullied... though there is a 99% chance that this Saturday it may be used!

Gold Star of the Week:

• Danielle for finishing her first race ever.

It's already Tuesday, which means I've done my speed work for this week. It was much better than last week's, thank goodness.

I'm starting to think that if everything goes right, I will be able to get that 4:00:00 marathon. Based on the 19 miler, I'm on pace. My elapsed time including water stops was 3:00:00, so if I can just run 7.2 miles in one hour I just might squeak by. But of course I know that usually race day doesn't happen the way you plan.

This weekend, Husband is in an epic wedding in Philadelphia/Baltimore. We will be going up there on Friday, so I will miss Team Navy's first 20 miler on Saturday. I did some research and found the Boston Pacemakers, a group that runs long each weekend. A quick Facebook wall post later and I will be joining them for whatever they have on tap. I don't think they are doing 20, but between 17-19, which I figure is close enough. 

And then I will put on high heels and go to a wedding where there better be a buffet dinner... cause if not, I'm going to be eating Husband's food too.