i'm an awful blogger.

Since late July, a  lot has been going on. I realize I'm not a good blogger, mostly because I've been lacking in the "posting fun and original new content" department. I'll work on that.

After a bit of a blah period in my marathon training, I dragged myself to a group speed session and put on my happy face. I clocked a sub 8:45 minute mile as my warm up and negative splits followed during the sprint portions of the 6 mile run. I'm glad I went because it put me back in a positive mindset and I couldn't wait to lace up my kicks and hit the road for my next run.

15.15 miles at a 10:06min/mile pace

High on my speed work success, on August 4th, 2012 I ran my longest run ever. Clocking in at 15.15 miles was fantastic. Logging that mileage and ending feeling good was a highlight of the summer. Long run Sunday got switched to long run Saturday that week so I could partake in an important summer ritual on Sunday - brunch! I knew there was no way I'd be dragging my tired butt out of bed at 5am on Sunday to run long before I hit a gourmet brunch buffet at 11am with my family. I did what any savvy runner would do - ran long on Saturday and didn't feel guilty about drinking mimosas and visiting the buffet upwards of five times the following morning. It worked; I didn't feel a twinge of guilt as I ate 3+ desserts.

Some more fun news from that week - I got selected to be a part of the Mezamashii Run Project! More on this later...

Following my brunch carb binge I was preparing myself for an impromptu half marathon I'd finally decided to commit to 1 week before race day. My training plan called for a drop in mileage following the 15 miler of the previous Saturday, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get a solid long run in, find a half marathon baseline and work on fueling during a race. Sounds like a solid plan, right? ...and then, my epic training fail of 2012.

...not so fast.

As defined in my previous post, speed work is, in fact, “not so speedy, but I try really hard with longer rest breaks in between bouts of “speed” ”. Wednesday was my first official mandated day of speed work. The excel spread sheet that governs my life dictated three miles in total. Mile one was a warm up followed by a stretch and then the fun begins. The next quarter mile is a build to race pace, then the following quarter mile is at or below race pace, finally the last half mile is one minute above race pace – then repeat. Because the mile markers were so specific, I hit the track to give my knees a break and so I would have clearly marked start and stop points. I decided that the best possible time to do this would be at 2pm on an 89 degree day in June. I breezed through the warm up. It was a real confidence booster until the speed work actually began and I hated my life. I was tricked into thinking this would be an easy workout by the total mileage being three, with a full mile warm up. Between water breaks, stretching, starts and stops, my total time spent on the track was an hour for a whopping total of 3.25 miles. I ran a 5K in 28mins and 16seconds earlier this month. I’m struggling to see where the speed comes in to play. The only comfort I have is knowing that these workouts may prevent me from finishing after race have deconstructed the finish line the marathon with a less than ideal time. Yikes.