the road goes on forever...

Beautiful Florida winter day in Virginia. 65 degrees.

1x1.5 miles at 10k pace (6:40)

3x800 (3:00ish) 

Clarky's first official run! I don't want to be like one of those "Toddler's in Tiaras" moms and force him at an early age, but I found a one mile dog jog in Richmond that I know he would love to do. It's in March so I figured I would start now to see if he could get up to a consecutive mile.

We woke up at 6:30 (an hour early than he would prefer) so that not many people would be out. He's usually really distracted on his walks but today when we started off in a run he was very focused. We only stopped twice- once because he was scared of a garbage bag, and another for a potty break. I bagged it and we continued our run to the nearest trash can.

He did a really good job... so much so that I am scared that it was a fluke. I have my long run tomorrow and look forward to a recovery mile with Clark on Thursday morning :)

Official Time: 9:05! 

woo hoo!

8:17 avg. 

Clarky mile- 8:15!

One week from today I will be doing my next long run (19) and one week from today I will celebrate with the ultimate lunch. Ever since I spotted it on "ThisIsWhyYoureFat.Com" I have been dyinggggg to try a krispy kreme bacon cheeseburger.  Especially after I downed a dozen of the fried glazed babies at the krispy kreme challenge.  We had a new restaurant open up in town (meaning there are now two here), and on the menu they have the Donut Burger.  I decided to save it for a day I earn it, and I think 19 miles deserves donuts and bacon. I have never been this excited for a long run before!

I have been dying to test my training in a road race. I found this one a couple of days ago and saw that it is fairly competitive each year, so I figured it was worth the hour drive.  I didn't expect to win, but appreciate the pair of Oakleys I got for first place! Definitely got my money back in sunglasses and donuts. 

Moderately hilly course. 

6:47- yucky hill at the start 

6:13- in my defense there was a large downhill portion

6:35

6:38- toughest mile

6:50- I am surprised this one was so bad, but I guess there were a few hills and a lot of sharp turns. 

Enjoyable race, I'll definitely look for it again next year. It looks like the Richmond Track Club does a good job... man do I miss living in a city with a running club :( 

I don't know 5 mile times but the comparable 5k (20:05) and 10k (41:45) times aren't where I want to be. But it does put me at a 1:33 half and I really want to go sub 1:35 in two weeks. We shall see.

Out to enjoy the rest of this BEAUTIFUL day (60 degrees!)

According to Sasha's "training mistakes" it is not too late for me to get some mileage in for my April marathon.

"If you are going from sporadic training (2-3 days a week) to consistent (6 days a week) you can in most cases go ahead and nearly double your mileage by running the same daily volume with greater frequency. If that is too much, then cut the daily volume as appropriate, usually 20-30% cut will do. Similar principle if going from single runs to training twice a day - keep the first run the same, and add some easy jogging for the second run."

This means I can add a day or two, ignoring the 10% rule, as long as those days aren't more than my normal runs. Excellent! I was worried about the extra mileage, but it seems as though it shouldn't affect me too much if it is just an extra 5 or 6 miler (or two).  Here's to a new goal of ~35 miles this week :)

Planned on doing 5, but my running partner refused to do his mile and instead sat his furry stubborn behind in the middle of the road and refused to move.

This week of running has been dominated by work :( Of course that happens when we have perfect weather.

As long as my long run goes okay Saturday my mileage will be fine.  

8:11 avg.  

Hit a wall around 16 and struggled for the final 3. Last mile was 8:40.

Planned on going farther but a few issues keep flaring up (knee, calves). Decided to take advantage of this mini-taper and hope that it helps my legs get through the next month and a half.

Next up: half on Saturday!  

This was a pretty disappointing race. I was certain I would PR and pretty sure I could run under 1:35 fairly "easily." My goal was to go out around 7 minute pace and try to hold it as long as possible. It ended up not being too long. But, it was a rather small race so I did get third overall and 50 bucks... so not too shabby for a bad day!

There are several excuses for my poor racing, some of which are pretty good ones and taught me some good lessons. 

1) Nutrition- I had stomach issues that slowed me down considerably for three or four miles. I don't know what I did wrong but I will not repeat last night's dinner before another long run/race.  I also don't have any gu so had nothing to give myself during the race when I was bonking (although I don't know if my stomach could have handled it). 

2) Loose gravel = no PR. It killed me. I will never race hard on a surface described this way again. I am lucky I didn't get hurt and was extremely frustrated as I was sliding around. I would do this race again for fun, but slow up considerably on the gravel miles (mainly 4-9).

3) Flat out & back feels more like uphill both ways. I don't race well on flat surfaces (I underperformed my last marathon for the same reasons). I need to keep this in mind when planning my race schedule and making race expectations.

4) I really need to get some miles in leading up to my marathon. My fitness is not at all where it should be. As long as my knee recovers well from the race I will be ready for some higher mileage weeks to finish up my training. 

Other things that could have played a role would have been the drive to get there (2.5 hours starting at 4am), but since I don't have many choices I will probably try it again some time and hope for better results. 

All-in-all I learned a few things to help me out in the future, although I worry the stomach issues are something that may not be preventable. I am thankful for the ability to run a race like this on a bad day, and just hope to see less of these bad days in the future :) 

Please support Clark's first race and homeless animals in Virginia by sponsoring us in the Richmond Dog Jog! Any amount will be helpful in taking care of less fortunate animals. 

https://www.richmondspca.org/clarky 

Thanks :)