Chicken or Egg??

Well, I must say... the chicken must have came first, because I chickened out of the full next weekend b4 I had the chance to lay a major egg!! My quest to get faster is outta control... I shouldn't be doing all of this racing. There is no way my body can handle a half marathon, 2 full marathons, a 4 miler, and a 25k all in the span of 6-7 weeks. So I ditched the full for the half marathon next week. (i wasnt going to totally NOT run). I seem to recover from these races pretty well physically, though. But this ankle of mine!!! Its not getting any better... of course I'm not resting it! I'm just going to have to run on it until it falls off or something, because I am not taking time off again for a silly injury.

I finally got out of my rutt and went out and did some speedwork. For real this time. Started with a 1 mile warmup. Got to the track and did 6 x 200 @ 35sec each with a 1 min (200m) recovery. Its soooo much easier running on the track than running on the streets. I followed that up with two 1.7 mile tempos back to back at 10k pace. Felt really good, plus there were a lot of hills on this tempo run (obviously it was done on the roads). Wimpy workout you may say... but this was my PM workout, I had a 6.5 mile 1/2 mp run in the morning. All this 2 days after doing a 5 mile tempo 2 days prior @ 10k - 1/2 mp on the dreadmill!!

I followed up with a 10 mile mp run yesterday, and I did a 4.5 mile tempo today @ 10k pace. I did this on my lil route that has my version of Heartbreak Hill at mile 2-3, and a progressive incline at mile 1-2. Why am I trying to torture myself?? Well I checked my workout history, and I had my half PR in 2007 and I did like 85% up-tempo running. Now with all this slow/long stuff, I cant PR. I got that PR and had never run farther than 10k, and only did THAT one time!! So in order to race fast, I gotta train fast. Also, after following the training of another runner on Runner's World, and seeing how her times have declined with speedwork, I'm motivated now.

I also had a convo with another person from Runner's World, who compared how when she first ran a marathon, she was way heavier and ran slow, but hardwork paid dividends and now she's a BQ (Boston Qualifier). If you dont know what that means, dont worry... its just an "in" group for faster runners. She challenged me to put in the work in order to make "Boston" in 2010. I'm up for the challenge... but I gotta drop 15 minutes from my marathon and drop some MAJOR weight. Yeah, I'm talking about you, LOL. My initial goal was 185, but now its 180lbs. I'm at 193 now. Speaking of that... I was at a health fair yesterday, and I tried on a "fat suit" that weighed 20lbs. I wondered, there is NO WAY I could run with this 20 pound thing on. I would be slow as mollasses. Then it clicked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I dropped that much weight, running would be sooo much easier. Its just hard to eat totally right with the high paced, stressful, VERY limited time career I have. I'm always hungry and can only eat quick foods... thus no weight loss. But I lost a good 10lbs last year just b4 my marathon, so it CAN be done.

Back to running... I have the Half Marathon next Sunday. I'm going all out in it!! Goal 1:38 flat. The next Saturday I have a 4 mile run... its a fun-run/walk to benefit Lighthouse. I'm recruiting a lot of old high school friends that have never run b4 or exercised. Hope they show up, if only to donate to the cause. (stuff like that is important to me). I'm just joggin this. The following Saturday is MY race... the National 25k Championships in Grand Rapids, MI. I'm praying for a top 5 placement in the Clyde division (185lbs +). It was competitive last year, but I think I have their number!! And I run on...