I’m ba-ack!

met the gang Saturday morning out at Three Creeks metro park. It was over 50 degrees, crazy!! Meredith started to scare me the other day when she mentioned mid-April was only 14.5 weeks away, and I’d only run 4 times since Thanksgiving! The gang was planning to do about 10 miles, so I said I’d start with them and see how it went.

Our first mile was 9:15, and we threw a couple 8 min miles in there. We got to the turn around in 40 min, at which point we figured we had NOT run 5.2 miles, we’re not sure how the route ended up short. The way back was a bit shorter (we took the shorter part of a loop). Around mile 8.5 as we crossed over a bridge I started to feel dizzy, so I walked a bit. Meredith had started picking up the pace in her usual style, so it wasn’t long before I didn’t see anyone anymore. I jogged a bit, then met with Rich. Walked a few more steps with him before setting out again. Somehow, that mile still ended up being 8:18, so everyone else REALLY must have been booking it! My last mile ended up being about 9:28 or so, not great, but not too bad considering I don’t think I’d run over 5 or 6 miles since Marshall!

I was sore the next day (ha! I’m still sore today), but it felt good. It reminded me of when I started training, like it was actually having an effect.

Last night I was reading “Road Racing for Serious Runners because I want to incorporate the speedwork for a half marathon into my training this time around. Targeting the Athens half marathon on April 1st, it had my long run for this upcoming week at 12 miles (perfect, we’re planning on 12 at highbanks), and a v02 Max workout of 5x 2:30 uphill. I hit the gym this morning and did just that:

5min warmup
2:30 at 6.0 incline
1:30 at 0:0 incline
4x (2:30 at 7.0 incline, 1:30 at 0:0 incline)
3:30 at 0:00 incline

which left me at 28:35, and somehow exactly 3 miles. I was going at about a 9:15/9:30mm, which worked for me. My hips feel quite tight, I definitely have some stretching to do. But my knees feel fine, which is great!

I was telling Meredith, I think my plan will be:
Monday: treadmill in the morning
Tues: hopefully run with her
Wed: off (class)
Thurs: treadmill in the morning (?)
Fri: run with Helen
Sat: run with the gang
Sun: off

I think that should give me a good mix of different environments and get myself in gear!

In other news, Paris doesn’t look to be happening this year, finances are just not accomodating. I have another super-secret plan involving the oldest annual marathon on the continent, but I don’t want to jnx that just yet either…