It's Taper Time!

you know your run is awesome when to capture it, you have to zoom out, and the screen contains multiple cities!

Today was the final long run of my sub-5 marathon plan. It looks like I am going to crush my goal, if all goes according to plan.

20 miles with a few little hills. This time around I have been coached by a member of the local running club I am apart of, the Vinerunners, and it has made a HUGE difference in my running. I am WAY faster and WAY more consistent. Today we had negative splits and jammed the last 2 miles in. It was a PERFECT run. It was the best run I have ever run.

(You can tell I still have runners high by my excessive use of caps!)

I can't quite express how stoked I am. I have to potential to finish under 4:30. I could cut up to an HOUR off my marathon PR. I am tickled by the possibilities.

The goal now is to not get sick in the next 12 days, stretch a ton, and let the good times roll. I wish it was next weekend, I am SO ready for this race!

Good Things: Easter Edition

3 miles on treadmill, 10:00 pace

I will admit, I was a little nervous to get my run on. I was really worried that I might have a lingering injury like after NWM in October, when I erroneously thought I had a stress fracture in my foot. But, 3 miles at 10:00 pace with minimal pain was FANTASTIC! My back gave me some troubles by the end (I've had a huge knot in my lower back since the race) and my knee was a little sassy for the first quarter mile, but running felt amazing and I hope it fuels me to get out more this week. After all, if I am ever going to break 5 hours I need to log more miles!

Good Things:

My awesome mom sent me bunny flowers for Easter since I wouldn't be doing anything celebratory. The wonderful Maggie invited me to church, which I considered but ultimately was too intimated because it was Catholic church. I am glad she did because it has me more serious about finding a congregation of my own. I hope she reads this so she doesn't think I completely blew her off and can see how much I appreciated her gesture even though I am too lame to show her or text her back. These two things pretty much make my Easter. That, and knowing later I will get to talk to all my family peeps on the phone.

This week, I also hope to get back on with the running club and train with real, live people. Thursday will be my first group run. I am nervous about being fast enough but excited because I know running with faster people will ultimately make me faster and get me faster to my sub-5 goal. And a group run next Saturday as well. This is getting serious folks.

My final BTSA document check is Friday, which means that the bulk of the work for the first year of clearing my teaching credential will be behind me. Although I have yet to actually complete all the documents, I have pretty much figured out how all of it is going to go in my head, have all the my documents and materials gathered. One that is done, I can celebrate when a long time friend is in town. We should also be celebrating a job offer for JF, which means this is going to be a very champagne week!

What will you be celebrating this week? Do you attend religious services anywhere? How did you pick your congregation?

You look fit. What was your BQ time?

I have to admit, I feel really guilty running the Boston Marathon without a BQ time. I didn't expect to feel this way, and I feel shameful when I have to explain that my last marathon was nearly 6 hours. Boston is an elite race, and I am not sure if I deserve the bib, but I have it and I am going to run it. And try to break 5 hours. Not only that, but it is a serious goal to get a BQ time and EARN my bib. Thats what this is all about, right? Working the race inspired me to be a runner, and running the race is going to inspire me to be a FAST runner. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

This morning was my first run with the local running club, The Vinerunners. Because of the rain and another race that was going on in the valley, only 3 members showed up. I swear, these are the nicest people I have ever met. They ran with me and filled my ego head with all sorts of word of encouragement. They cut the distance down to 4 miles for me (keeping it short to stay fresh for tomorrow's long run) and kept an easy pace as well. 4 miles in 39 minutes. Although this is not fast, it is much faster than I have been running, and it felt GREAT. It reminds me of the faster paces I would run when I had a running buddy.

After the fantastic run with the club, we went and got coffee. What we talked about:
Physics of light (seriously)
Plight of American schools
Alaska
How I can run a 3:30 marathon in no time at all (double serious!)

A running club is exactly what the doctor ordered to get my out of my funk. Despite the funk, March will still be my highest mileage month of 2011. Excited for my long run tomorrow!