[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Today is day 1 of my 18 week schedule to prep for Philly. After listening to the ortho, I decided to stick with the Pfitzinger peak at 55 miles per week plan. I had worked up to 70 miles prior, but I think that would be too aggressive after only running for 1 month. Besides, I can practice all this crosstraining I learned to up my total volume. 

The schedule called for 4 tempo miles, I haven't done a tempo run yet and it was super hot and humid. I actually decided on the drive down to attempt any tempo miles. Partially because of the half this weekend, I want my body to know what "faster" miles will feel like to make sure I don't go out too fast. 

My tempo miles were: 7:34, 7:42, 7:29, so 7:35 min/mi average. I could have pulled a 4th but decided to conserve. I wouldn't say this is my new tempo pace. I know I will drop this fast. I felt kinda panicky during it, kinda fun learning to run again.

5 easy miles following my hr monitor to stick to less than 76% max hr. It was kinda easy to keep the hr low because I stopped 5 times to take pics at all angles of the gorgeous sunrise along the Charles River in Cambridge and Boston. Oh the things runners get to see. :)

1 hour on the alterg at 70% body weight and 10 MPH. I'm wondering what body weight will feel hard at 10 MPH! This run went by too fast.  

Had to fight 2 h of traffic driving back from Hopkinton, so had to cut my weight workout short. Worked on the leg press and was able to do more weight than last week even though some ultra runners were in the gym distracting me by talking about all these marathons. I had to chime in and one of the guys said "You must be a marathon runner. You look like a runner." Woot, woot!! Music to my ears!

Almost decided to skip Bikram because I'm getting a head cold. I always get sick before a race!! Oh well. Bikram ended up being much more pleasant than I thought. Hopefully that means the half will be too. I can't believe how quickly I am progressing with my body! My right leg has gained so much strength it's starting to get harder to notice a difference between my right and left. :)

This (thankfully) ended being a progressive run. First mile 9:11 (my legs felt like the tin man's), but as things loosened up my pace dropped. Mile 8 was 8:18 then I wrapped things up with a 1 mile cool down since it had gotten so hot and I didn't have time to go to the hospital for a busy day of work. AP: 8:43 min/mi

4 easy miles shaking things out before my race tomorrow! Eek! 8:55 min/mi AP.