Up Ahead....More Mileage

...Or Now the Rubber Really Meets the Road...

A-Ha! It's only Monday and I'm already blogging! This is a great stride in my blogging timeliness. Right now I have time on my hands. I am typing this blog as I sit atop a packing box and movers are packing the rest of my things for my move back to the States. I am really excited to be back and can't wait for this transition to be complete. I am so excited about the upcoming changes in my life!

 So, this week's training schedule was held to the letter. I not only did I do my speed work,which consisted of  6x800 intervals. I completed Friday's pace run, semi-successfully by maintaining an 8:29 minute-mile for 9 miles. This is just as good as I ran two weeks ago for 8 miles, and I am slightly disappointed that I couldn't get a little faster. I must run at least an 8:23 during the marathon to meet the Boston Qualifying time. I know that I'm only 6 seconds shy of this, and I still have quite a bit of time. What this tells me is not to skip anymore speed work!

Saturday's run was a 19-miler and it went relatively well.  I ran the whole thing in around 2 hours 56 minutes. I am slightly concerned that I am running too fast on these long runs. I am running comfortably, I'm not out of breath (well, maybe toward the end), and I try not to concentrate on the pace too much. But I must admit that the more miles I tic off of the run, the more excited I get and the faster I want to finish. Hal Higdon, running guru says that long runs should be"45 to 90 seconds per mile or more slower than marathon pace. This is very important, particularly for Advanced runners who do speedwork during the week" I guess I am maintaining around 60 seconds slower, so I am within that window, but I don't want to suffer any burn out. Additionally, I am trying very, very hard to stay injury free.

The completion of this 19-mile run is a turning point in my training, starting this weekend, I will surge up to 20 miles, from here on out, all of my long runs will be 20 miles alternating with 12 miles during the taper week. It's very important for me to stay injury free during this time, because this is where I typically pick up an over-use problem. I'm hoping using the foam roller that the DHO turned me onto will help ward of some of these issues. Additionally, I've been working harder to do more effective post-run stretching.
Another concern I have is my nutrition, I think that it is going to be very difficult for me to maintain good nutrition during this transition back to the States. I'm going to have to be diligent to maintain a healthy diet.

In Summation: Moving back to the States=Fantastic!;  19-mile Run=Good; Speed-work=Effective When Accomplished; Increase in Mileage=A Little Daunting, but Not Impossible.