Motivated to Succeed

4:00 PM - Sunny and temperature was in the high 50s. Cooler than yesterday and more clouds in the sky. Today was a good day. I helped Emmy and Sky-boy plant some seeds to start some seedlings for our garden while I watched a stream on the computer of the L.A. marathon. Pretty cool stuff. We had a little fire to get rid of the brush from the winter and then took Skyler to go get ice cream on the way to drop him off at his mom's. Afterward we went over to the bike trail and went jogging. Ran most of it slow, but then the last mile or so started to pick it up. Emmy totally called me on it and we were clipping along at about 7:30 pace. Well she really took off after that though she said she didn't even notice. By the last 300m we were cruising at 5:57 pace. This was a good run, especially on tired legs! Yesterday's long run kicked my butt (in a good way though!). Now time for a shower and some prepping for tomorrow's classes. Man the weekend sure goes by a little too fast for my liking! Splits were:

• Mile 1: 9:34
• Mile 2: 9:24
• Mile 3: 9:29
• Mile 4: 8:42
• .70: 5:22 (7:42 pace)
  

 Total Time: 42:31 Total Distance: 4.70 miles Average Pace: 9:03

5:30 PM - Long day at school. Got to see Emmy when I got home though and the Ruby Gato. That made it better. I was able to talk about Obama's Health Care bill with my 4 classes today. However most of my classes are shot these next few days because there is MCAS state testing for my kids in the morning. Legs are still shot from the long run 12 miles this Saturday. Going to focus on building up the long run so that I can hit my 24 miler on my birthday and finish the 50k on July 3rd. SO, the question is now, when to fill out and send in my application!?!

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 3.30 miles Average Pace:  9:05

Registered for my first ULTRA today! Out in Fabius, NY. I was going to do the Finger lake 50s however there are no hotels near there and the B&Bs cost a bit too much. We found a Comfort Inn for only $68 bucks and plus this race is only $10. It is earlier than the FL50s. This one takes place right around my birthday, Saturday MAY 29th. It is put on by the Syracuse Chargers Track Club and is called the:

HIGHLAND FOREST 1-2-3 Trail Race.

 
Runners can choose to run 1, 2, or 3 laps. Oh, and you can switch on the day of the race. I am going to gun for 3 laps. However as per the race site I have to start the 3rd lap before the 4.5 hr mark. So I have to push it the first 20 miles to make the cut off methinks. Check out the website!

http://www.syracusechargers.org/highland123/index.html

This is the training plan it drew up for me. I am in Week 3 I believe right now. I only have 10 wks to train. From what I've read the Saturday and Sunday runs are the most important so they are the ones I need to MAKE sure I do! Do you think this schedule will be adequate to finish? I have 4 x 20+ long runs and considering I ran 2 marathons on runs never exceeding 15 miles, I think that this would be more than enough? Thanks!

Week Of Week Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Miles Mar 1 1 CD 0 2 2 2 0 8 6 20 Mar 8 2 CD 0 2 2 4 0 10 6 24 Mar 15 3 CD 0 2 2 4 0 12 8 28 Mar 22 4 0 2 4 6 0 14 8 34 Mar 29 5 0 4 4 6 0 16 10 40 Apr 5 6 0 4 6 6 0 18 10 44 Apr 12 7 0 4 6 8 0 20 10 48 Apr 19 8 CD 0 4 8 6 0 10 8 36 Apr 26 9 0 4 8 8 0 22 10 52 May 3 10 0 4 10 8 5 12 10 49 May 10 11 5 4 10 8 0 24 10 61 May 17 12 CD 0 4 10 6 0 10 8 38 May 24 13 4 3 2 0 0 50K ultra 0 55

Something that I have learned this week is that we cannot always control our lives and our training. However what we CAN do is control the quality of it. I have spent a lot of time with Emma this week. She lost her grandfather on Wednesday morning and I have spent a lot of time with her just sharing time with one another. I went to the wake yesterday after school. The funeral was today but Mary Rose (Emma's mom) said it was probably better if we did not go to it. I know I have a hard enough time going to a wake. It was the first time for me anyways and I didn't want to tell Emma how much it made me anxious. Ever since my own Poppy died when I was 9 I have had a really hard time dealing with death. 

10:00 AM - Went jogging on the treadmill as I watched an episode of "Dirty Jobs". I'd been up since 6am and really needed to get a jog in. Was going crazy not running this week.

Total Time: 30:00 Total Distance: 3.30 miles Average Pace: 9:05

3:30 PM - Today was pretty cool. I loved it however. I always feel and run better in the cool spring and late fall weather because I sweat less. I always sweat profusely when running, but I was able to run relatively comfortably at the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail with Emmy this afternoon after lunch. Despite only being 40ish out, it was sunny so there were a decent amount of runners and bikers out. We ran out to the duckpond where the guy has built a mini condo for his geese and ducks and stretched. Emma wasn't feeling too hot on the way out, however she felt better after stretching. We really started to pick it up on the way back. This was the longest continuous run outside in my Vibrams. I did buy a pair of those Injinji socks but did not think to bring them for the run today. Will try that next time. Felt good. We were flying as usual at the end. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 9:08
• Mile 2: 8:27
• Mile 3: 8:34
• Mile 4: 8:22
• .7: 5:30 (7:54 pace)