Back in the saddle?

Today is a beautiful day.  It's about 60 degrees out, and I wore shorts and a tank top (new running clothes that I bought with my Christmas money).  The streets were deserted.  The running felt very easy, and I'm starting to get very excited about the race.  I won't know what to do with all the time on my hands, though, during the taper!  I have to force myself not do overdo it.

Total time was 47:31, a 9:30 pace.  Mile splits were 9:30, 9:34, 9:38, 9:38, and 9:13.

Time to make blackeyed peas!  Happy New Year!  5 miles down, 2003 to go!

I hate tapering!  I feel so unmotivated that I turn into a sloth!  I had every intention of running tonight.  Last night, we drove to my husband's brothers house to pick up a FREE treadmill that his wife is "letting us borrow indefinitely."  I was SO EXCITED to get a treadmill.  Everything worked fine at their house, except the display and the incline.  It was set at a permanent incline, but somehow we got everything working there.  So we loaded it up and brought it home.

Tonight I was planning 5 miles with 2 miles at race pace, and I thought I would try out the new treadmill.  Lo and behold, the incline AND the display were broken again!  I got some phone books to prop up the back so it would be flat, but I have no idea how to get the display working.  By then, I was so frustrated that I decided to just call it a night.  I spent the evening on the computer setting up the Mvelopes system (very cool budget tool-I am determined to quit blowing so much money this year!).  Tomorrow I'll just plan on running outside.  It was 71 degrees here today!

Tonight's run was a real struggle.  I planned on running 7, but once I got out there, I knew it was not going to happen.  I had a cramp in my side for most of the run.  The plan was to start easy and finish with 2 miles at race pace.  I did it (kind of), but none of it felt easy.  This happened during my last marathon taper.  I had some crappy workouts.  I crashed and burned at the race, but still ran a 17-minute PR.  So hopefully by tomorrow I will have put this run out of my mind.

Total time: 47:30, average pace: 9:30.  Mile splits: 9:35, 9:40, 9:51, 9:15, 9:08.  Blah!

I haven't decided my goal for the race yet.  I think I could PR if I go all out (sub-3:54:16), but I don't know if I want to do that.  I take a very long time to recover from marathons, and I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to qualify for Boston by June.  I think I might pace my friend, whose goal is to break 4:00, and that would be a great race for me.  But my biggest goal will be to not hit the wall.  I think I would be ecstatic to finish in just under 4:00 and still feeling good.  We shall see...

Today's run was harder than it should have been.  I am just psyching myself out too much for the race.  After today, NO MORE WATCH until the race.  It was perfect racing weather: 55 degrees and cloudy.  I hope it's like this next weekend.

For some reason, I decided to run a little faster today.  I think I was hoping to emulate my awesome run on Christmas Eve, but it didn't quite happen.  Today I ran from my house to my office building and back.  Total time was 1:37:20, a 9:29 average pace.  Mile splits: 9:29, 9:37, 9:23, 9:23, 9:36, 9:35, 9:28, 9:33, 9:30, 9:26, and 9:03 for the last .26.  I'm surprised that mile 2 was the slowest mile.  The run back felt much harder, but it's a long, very gradual uphill, so that probably made a difference.

Has anyone had a massage after a marathon?  My friend has a free gift card to Massage Envy, so we're thinking about going in the afternoon after the race.  I think it would help my recovery.