Marathon Training

It was so cold I had to wear my tights, gloves, a jacket, and a headband for my ears and I didn't take any of it off the whole time except for my gloves the last two miles.  I ran with a couple of people the first 6 miles at an 8:45 pace then I slowed down a little because of some hills and I was also running a little faster than I wanted to go.  I ended up feeling pretty good, there was water out every two miles, so I wasn't dehydrated at all.  I held around 9:00/mi most of the way back and picked up the pace the last two miles.  I felt a blister starting to form on the back of my heel from the tights but it didn't bother me enough to stop and roll the tights up.  I ended at an 8:58/mi pace overall. 

My legs felt fine the rest of the day, no calf stiffness or quad soreness.

Ran with a group from my hometown.  We were running 7:55/mi for the first 4 miles and then started to pick it up the last mile and dropped to a 7:45 pace overall.  There is a nice hill at the end that is fun to sprint up.  Tonight wasn't as bad as sunday morning.  It was probably 15 degrees warmer so I was able to wear shorts.

This was a rough run because of the wind.  My parents live on the water and it was very windy today.  I don't quite remember the pace details because I haven't gotten around to filling out my running calendar lately, but its in my GPS watch so I will update this entry eventually.  I believe that the pace was around 8:45 overall though.

Easy run with wind.  One way I was averaging 8:30/mi without even trying and on the way back I was doing about a 9:45/mi to keep it at minimal effort.

I was averaging a 7:50/mi pace for the first 3 miles and then I slowed down a little and the overall pace was 7:54/mi.  The wind wasn't as bad today.  I was wearing my old green accented mizuno shoes with red shorts for Christmas spirit.  These shoes are really old and don't have much cushining.  I usually just use them for things besides running, golf,  frisbee golf, when I am doing a lot of walking....

I ran the first 9.5 with my brother who is training for his first marathon.  He is becoming a much faster runner than when he started running regularly about 2 years ago.  We kept around  9:00/mi and he was doing 18 because his marathon is still about a month away and mine is only 2 weeks from tomorrow, so I split off after 9.5 to do the last 3.5 by myself.  I picked up the pace to about 8:30/mi, and the last 1.5 mi I wanted to do a fast finish so I dropped to a 7:30/mi when I was running on the sidewalk.  There was loose sand for about 0.15mi where the sidewalk was being repaired and I had to slow down to cross the street and run up a hill so I ended up doing the last 1.5 in a  7:50/mi pace. 

This was my last long run before the first marathon of the two.  Now I start my taper and cutting out alcohol (except on New Years Eve and New Years I will be in Biloxi and then New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl to watch Tebow play his last game with the Gators) I will try to only have a couple though.