What a gorgeous weekend.

The weather was beautiful this weekend unfortunately my schedule did not live up to my expectations. As I mentioned in the post below we celebrated the engagement of my younger sister Friday night. I ate a lot of pasta, did not drink but I was up late, at least late for me. I am not sure if it was the pasta, the lack of sleep or a combination of both but I was in a funk Saturday morning. I was crabby and fatigued and disappointed because I knew that there would be no running or biking. I needed the rest and I was not going to get in my workout. The day was still very nice and it did not rain until later in the evening so I got to spend a lot of time with the family.

Sunday I woke up early and squeezed the long run in before church. I put no thought into pacing before this run so I did a little math during my warm up and came up with a plan. I would run the first three miles in 9:00 minute/mile, the next four at a 8:45 minute/mile pace and the final four at 8:30 minute/mile pace. That never happened. The first mile came in a perfect 9:00 minutes. The next was pretty fast in eight forty something and instead of regrouping and backing off the pace I went with it and ran negative splits for five miles. After that I ran a couple miles close to even splits and negative splits including some really good ones the last two or three miles. I felt comfortable enough to run twelve miles instead of eleven so I was pleased with that. The rest of the day I did yard work and played with the kids so I obviously was not feeling too sore.

The rest of this week will be interesting. Our church has challenged us to fight hunger and be more aware of how too many people in this world are forced to live. As part of the Celebration of Hope we are packing meals to feed ten thousand children in Africa for a year. Many people in the world live on two dollars or less a day so for the next five days we are eating like that is all we have. That means a cup of plain oatmeal for breakfast, beans and rice in a tortilla for lunch and a little rice, small amount of vegetables and an even smaller amount of chicken for dinner. The money we save will be donated to provide more meals for those in need. This is how I will be eating for the next five days so my running will certainly be curtailed. I hope to run three miles tomorrow, three on Wednesday and I should be fine on Sunday to run my pull back long run of eight miles.

12 miles in 1:42:44

Mirror posts

I should just copy yesterdays report and paste it into this one because they were almost identical. Once again I woke up, turned off the alarm and got back into bed. I proceeded to lay there for five minutes reminding myself that I wouldn't really fall back to sleep and that I needed to be productive and run. It was another beautiful day, although there was an earthquake in Indiana that some Chicagoans and Chicago suburbanites felt. Personally I would not have known that there even was an earthquake except that I saw it on the news.

Friday is not the best day for me to run because I am responsible for getting the kids ready and out the door. I decided to pick up the pace a little bit to save some time. Mile three was the only positive split, there are some hills and one in particular that usually kicks my behind a little. Fortunately I was able to take the time off during mile four and still ran a quicker pace than I have been. My hope had been to take a recovery bike ride tomorrow but seeing as how it is supposed to rain the plan has changed to run tomorrow and bike on Sunday. This works out better anyway because we are going out tonight to celebrate the engagement of my sister and her fiance so I will be able to carb up on some tasty pasta. Not that it is really necessary for an eleven mile long run but it is a good excuse to eat pasta. : )

4 miles in 32:58

Five more minutes, just five more minutes.

Well, I almost slept through this one but eventually I did drag myself out of bed. I turned off the alarm and laid back down but as I lay there I kept telling myself that I wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep anyway. Five minutes later then I had planned I was up and thank goodness I did so because it was fifty seven degrees this morning! The run felt good even though I have a blister on my right foot. I wore my Brooks Glycerin Fives yesterday and like them a lot but I also wore two pairs of socks which was a bad idea as it gave me the blister. I was back in my Mizunos this morning and will wear them until the blister heals. After that I definitely want to break in those Brooks because they felt good much better than my Asics.

I originally was planning to run five miles today but opted to run four instead because of my late start and the time crunch to get home and get everyone out the door.

4 miles in 33:58

I'm back.

Well, it has been quite some time since I have updated this sucker, yes I am a slacker but after an interesting Chicago Marathon and sloth-like training after the 50K I ran last October I am training again and have been for a couple of months.

I have decided to take it easy on my training to build a base and will be following a modified novice Higdon plan until mid to late July when I will pick up the mileage and speed work. I have also added core work, strength training and cross training on the bike to improve my overall fitness as well as running. Regarding races, I have three that I know I will do and one that that is up in the air. This year I am running my first relay with the ChiADead team captained by Brian Gaines. The race is the Madison to Chicago 200 Relay and I am really looking forward to this race and the challenges it will bring. The other two races I definitely plan to run are the Alpine Half Marathon in September and the Lakefront 50/50, the 50K portion. I plan to run a marathon in the fall as well but have not decided which one. I do know that I will not run Chicago this year. I will be back some day but I am interested in running a marathon with a small field this year.

I've got a short run tomorrow and Friday with an eleven mile long run this weekend.