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Thirteen weeks and counting

Thirteen weeks and counting

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…until the Boston marathon, that is.  It’s very exciting stuff, now that I have a full week of training under my belt.  Last week I finished with about 33 or so miles/week.  These next two weeks I’ll creep toward 40 and then probably top around 50.  I know it will fly by!

Saturday was also my first “double digits” run since my last 10-miler, pre-Kenya, pre-Thanksgiving.  Yeah, it had been a while.  Fortunately, Chicago has been going through a bit of a winter thaw, so the temps aren’t terrible, much of the snow has melted, and just some ice remains (definitely enough to warrant caution!).  Saturday morning, once the BB group left the FF store, we did our 10 by running north along the lakefront up to the 1.0 mile marker (around Lawrence) and then turning around.  There are some seriously speedy people in the group, which is both exciting and slightly intimidating.  My run was just lovely and super enjoyable, thanks to the nice camaraderie of Erin and Margaret.  We ran comfortably, took turns conversing the whole way, and the miles seemed to fly by.  We had the weather on our side, too, which is always a positive boost.

Running’s now back in my groove.  I missed it not being there.  I have a 6-miler home tonight, in the dark, to look forward to, an an easy 3 tomorrow before speedwork (a la hills!) on Wednesday night and 12 on Saturday… along with some other runs this week.  Looking forward to it.

And so it begins…. and so it begins, indeed.

I feel the need… the need, for SPEED!

I feel the need… the need, for SPEED!

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Who doesn’t love Top Gun? 🙂

The quote seemed fitting to use since last night was my first night of speedwork with Fleet Feet’s Boston Bound program.  We got a temporary “heat wave” last night and had balmy temps in the 30s or so.  It was a nice change, though I was reluctant to shed any of my layers that I had become so accustomed to wearing over these past few weeks.  The workout was pretty straightforward: 2 mile warm up, 1 mile at marathon pace, 1 mile recovery, 1 mile marathon pace, 1 mile cool down, for a total of 6 miles.  Simple enough.

Admittedly, I was a bit geeked because my desired MP is 8:23 (for a 3:40 marathon), and I hadn’t really tried to run that anytime recently.  Adding further insult is that parts of the lakefront, where we run, are still snow- or ice-covered, so the footing is a bit precarious… making hitting a desired goal time a bit, well, lofty.

All turned out well, though, as my first timed MP was a 7:50 (WAY faster than I had wanted to shoot for!) and my second MP around 7:36.  Oops.  If nothing else, it was reassuring that I can still run relatively quickly after not doing hardly any speedwork since my Boston training last year or sometime this summer.  Rock on.

Saturday we’ll get back into double digits with a nice 10 miler along the lakefront.  Maybe the “heat wave” will hold out through Saturday.  We can only hope…