three weeks?? how did that happen?

It started creeping up on me when I was in Florida — Todd mentioned that his group was training for Chicago, the same day as Steamtown, but they’d done their 20 milerthe week before. I wondered why I was doing my long run that week. Then yesterday lispsugrl posted about it being three weeks to Steamtown.. wha?? how did this happen, and why did I only run 17 yesterday?

I looked at my schedule and compared it to the actual Advanced Marathoning book schedule, and sure enough, I messed something up along the way – it IS only three weeks til the big day! I think it happened because I had planned to run the State-to-State half yesterday, and then didn’t readjust when I didn’t. So now I have some decisions to make: do I do 20 next week, or not?

Yesterday’s run was good, so at least I have that. I went to Sharon Woods for 17, which is just over four loops of their path, which is hilly for the first two miles and pretty well flat for the next two. I didn’t run until after noon, so it was warm and I actually resorted to running in my sports bra for the last few miles, which I NEVER do. I ran with my mp3 player as well, first listening to Phedippidations podcasts for an hour or so and then witching to the new TimbaLand cd. Listening to music tends to make me run faster, which I think it did yesterday.

As I said, the run went well. Splits: (I forgot to turn my watch on for a half mile after the 2mile waterstop, so the splits are only for 16.5 miles, whereas I ran 17)

Overall: 16.51mi – 2:13:50 – 8:06 pace. AvgHR – 170, MaxHR – 182

1: 8:36
2: 8:40
3: 8:18
4: 8:17
5: 8:33
6: 8:23
7: 8:03
8: 7:51
9: 8:04
10: 7:44
11: 7:37
12: 7:54
13: 8:05
14: 7:55
15: 7:50
16: 7:55
.5: 7:49 pace

So overall, a good run for a warm afternoon without being well-fueled. I am definitely looking forward to steamtown, although I wish I had a bit stronger training behind me. But isn’t that what you HAVE to think during tapering??