cheryl

Light treadmill work.

We met at Bingham to do the last best pre-marathon workout, which consisted of three 1-mile repeats and then two 400s.  The first mile was up and down Rustic Roads.  That took 8:06.  The next mile was from Rustic Roads to Canterwood, up to 2700 W. and ending at North Forty Way.  That took 7:53.  Then it was down Rustic Rds. to Merides and then Culmination.  That took 6:51.  The 400s I did in 1:39 and then 1:29.  Obviously, I ran the second two miles a little faster than marathon pace.  All the years I've run St. George, I've never had a sub-7 minute mile.  I'm hoping this year to keep all miles (except maybe for Veyo Hill) below 8:30.  We'll see how it goes.

Some treadmill running at various speeds.  Everything felt good.  I'm thinking this may be it for the running I do before the marathon.  Two years ago I went on a vacation where I didn't run very much.  I ran on a Saturday and then didn't run again until Tuesday.  We did a track workout that Tuesday and I ran some of the fastest times I've ever run.  That was the first time I really believed maybe tapering and resting does help.  So because of that I think not running for two full days before the race might be the way for me to go.

Where to begin?  What a difference a year makes.  Last year, after running a disappointing 4:01--disappointing because I ran 3:35:37 the year before--and wondering if this was it, if the inevitable slowdown that comes with aging had finally hit--and then today, at the ripe old age of 51 and 364 days old to set a PR, that was quite satisfying to me.  I really didn't have any realistic hopes of bettering my time of two years ago because my training was quite a bit less this year.  I should say I ran a lot this past year, but didn't do the traditional marathon training of long runs.  The longest I ran continually was one 16 mile run.  For some reason I just dislike long runs, plus I'm afraid they might lead to injury.  So I avoid the long runs, and basically the most running I do is with the BBKs, all awesome runners who help push each other to better and faster times.  So I have to give all those great people credit for helping push me a long.  The other thing that made a difference is just a few weeks ago I got some tips on how to run more efficiently, and  just making a few tweaks in my running form made a big difference in the outcome today.  The main thing was staying relaxed, not trying to power up the hills or really doing any power running, just staying more relaxed and finessing things more.  That helped a lot, although I did find myself falling back into the old tense, tight way several times, and I had to keep correcting that throughout the race.  I must say by about mile 17 or so I was thinking I need to learn to love the long run more because I could feel the lack of them hit about then.  My legs got tired, I had no knee lift by the end, and I was in survival mode.  I even felt like the legs were going numb with about two miles to go.  So I'm thinking maybe next year I'll do things a little better and maybe try for that elusive sub-3:30 time.  Then can I call it good and just run the marathon for "fun?"  (Is that possible?  Please tell me it is!!)  It was great to see how well everyone in the group did.  It made me happy to see how many  PR'ed today or even if they didn't pr, they still had a great time.  So I guess in spite of the pain of the race, it was a fun day.