Emily's training blog

And, the taper continues.  7 easy on a gorgeous morning.  My arms were cold.  It was fantastic.  I had a sore throat over the weekend, so I thought I would play it safe and do my track workout tomorrow.  I feel great otherwise, just a sore throat.  

Hmmm.   That was not an encouraging workout.  

As I was walking out the door, I noticed it was VERY windy this morning.  Teren was so encouraging.  "It's not that bad."  he told me.  So, off to the track I went.  I warmed up 2.5 miles, with 4 x 200. My workout was 6 x 1000.  I thought I could keep around 3:30.  Nope.

3:27  (Good, but huge effort.)  3:37 (Uh, oh.)  About here I thought about turning it into a fartlek workout instead, but decided to persevere.  3:38.3, 3:37.9, 3:38.6, (thought about calling it good at 5.  Decided to persevere.) 3:38.11.  I'm glad they were all under 3:40 at least.  I felt like I was running into a wall on the home stretch.  My splits were all over the place, but the overall times were very consistent.  I had envisioned a taper-tastic workout, where I felt amazing and ran super fast.  Nope.  Teren, it WAS that bad.  Blame it on the wind, right?  The pluses, I kept at it and finished the workout I set out to do.  I was extremely consistent after the first sprint-fest.  Finally, I think I could have run more of them if I absolutely had to.  

Cooled down 2.5 miles home.  

Beautiful sunrise through the clouds this morning.  It might not be quite so beautiful later this afternoon!  My right hip was very tight this morning.  It took about 30 minutes to properly warm up.  Lots of stretching and foam rolling this week.  I just need to stay in one piece for 10 more days!  I just want the race to get here already!  It's been a long time that I ran a race that had so much physical and mental build up before.  Maybe even as far back as NCAA's.  I'm excited to get to it!

It was warmer than I thought it would be this morning.  I ditched my gloves in the first 3 minutes.  I hope my new garmin comes in the mail today.  The watchband of my timex is hanging on by one tiny thread.  RIP Timex.  You've timed many an interval!

I brought my BRAND NEW GARMIN to Liberty Park for my last tempo run.  My workout goal was 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile with half a mile recovery at increasingly fast paces.  I saw Skyline's cross country team about ready to start their tempo, so I offered to pace the girls on their 3 mile.  Tom wanted 6:10, 6:00, 5:50.  Whew!  Not really in the plan, but I said I would try.  

I only got .6 warmup in before we started.  Mile 1: 6:06 (got out a little quick the first .25, which is normal for high school runners.  Mile 2 6:00 (right on, but the girls were having a tough time matching pace.)  Mile 3:  5:45.  17:51 for the 3 mile.  Half mile jog.  12:03 for the 2 mile.  ( I decided to bring back the pace a little.)  Half mile jog.   5:41 for the mile.  Half mile jog.    I planned on a longer cooldown, but got talking to Tom about coaching high schoolers.  Before I knew it, I needed to get home.  Good thing it's taper time!

I'm definitely happy with this workout.  I can't wait until next week!

1 week to go!  At this time next week, I'm going to be DONE . . . and I have resolved to be positive and happy no matter what the outcome.  It's a victory to actually be able to run a marathon . . . I wasn't sure if my body could ever hold up under the training.  

10.5 with Jenny on a very cold morning.  I was wearing shorts when Jenny came over, but decided to change into tights,  I'm glad I did.  I tried out my new New Balance flats.  The Asics just haven't been working well for me.  Much better.  They are more of a traditional racing flat, so they don't have the extra support built in.  They also don't restrict my form as much.  

Let's get to it!