86 days to go

After a five day hiatus, and much consulting with my running friends, I was back in business today. I was hesitant to start after Saturday's back pain, but everything was fine. I meant to focus more on strength training the past few days since I wasn't training, but slacked off and only did this last night. That's okay. Sometimes a body just needs to rest. I think I'm going to continue running four times a week and slowly add more miles. Next week I'm planning on running an average of 3-3.5 miles per run except for the long weekend run. I'm still deciding how long I'll make that one. Run time: 3 miles in 34 minutes Total time: 3.6 miles in 43 minutes.

91 days to go

Bad news... this morning I planned on running 7 miles, but at 5.5 miles in, a muscle in my back started giving me trouble and forced me to slow down and eventually stop.  The funny thing is that I felt really good up to that point.  I kept up a 5.5 pace for over 45 minutes, breathing was easy and not labored, and I maintained an even stride.  I was really enjoying my run up to that point.


I ran 6.6 miles (in 80 minutes) today, but probably should have stopped by 6.  I had my mind set on a 7 mile goal, though, and once I get my mind set to do something it's difficult to not do it.  (Especially, when I know I have friends and family reading up on my training - I want to prove I can do this!)  It didn't help that my husband and I spent the rest of the day walking around at the Philadelphia Auto Show.  My pedometer tallied up 5 more miles as a result and my legs are beyond worn out.


I think I may be pushing myself to go too far too quickly.  Only last week I started adding a fourth run to my weekly schedule.  On top of the extra run, I ran almost 7 miles last Saturday (my farthest run yet).  I ran this past Thursday too and covered 5 miles in 60 minutes.  I need to be smarter not only about eating right, but also about how often and how hard I run.  I've read in a few sources that runners aren't supposed to increase their weekly mileage by 1-2 miles.  Here I am increasing my mileage these past two weeks by probably 5 or 6 miles.  Needless to say, this week I will be taking it easy.  Hopefully that pulling muscle in my back was a once and done incident.  Please keep me in your prayers as I train!

96 Days to go

It's been a long day.  Maybe my body hasn't fully recovered from Saturday's run, but I'm tired.  I started receiving an email from runner Bart Yasso describing a weekly training plan to prepare me for the race.  The last couple of months I've been trying to run three times a week.  Now that the race is getting closer and I want to make sure I'm thoroughly prepared, I am upping my number of runs to four times a week.  This is going to make my life even more crazy, but in the end I think it will be worth it.

Today I ran 4.3 miles in 52 minutes, including the warm up and cool down.

On a side note, my copy of The Complete Book of Women's Running finally arrived today!  I wanted to do nothing but read it this evening, but unfortunately it got put on the back burner as some school work was necessary.