Rainy 14 miles

We ran 14 miles in on-again, off-again rain last Saturday, Feb. 6. I felt pretty good - no terrible foot or leg aches.

However, I feel far from ready for the Marathon. We were regularly doing 12 and 13 miles runs in December of 2008, despite the fact that the 2009 Marathon wasn't until May. Now we are just building up to long runs at our race pace, with the Marathon only a little more than a month away.

Next week will be a 16 mile run, but then I'll miss the 10 mile run and the 20 mile run the two weeks after that due to work. Since that's the ONLY 20-miler we're doing this whole training season, I'm seriously bummed. I'll try to do it on my own, but have serious doubts that I'll be able to finish that mileage by myself. At those distances, it's truly all about group motivation and support.

Not feeling ready

We're finally doing our Saturday runs at race pace, but we started over mileage-wise and are only up to 14 miles (this Saturday). I do NOT feel ready for the Marathon. And I'm bummed that I'll miss our ONLY 20 mile run due to having to work that Saturday. ARGH!

Cold-weather running

Between the cold and the ice-slicked sidewalks, conditions have not been conducive to running here in Minneapolis - but I did manage it twice. I'm looking forward to getting back to Venice, where I can wear shoes, shorts, a shirt, and a hat - and that's it!

Sat, Dec. 12 - 16 miles

Ugh, this is the most I've run at one time since the LA Marathon last May - and man, was I feeling it. It didn't help that we ran it at our very slow "aerobic" pace of 11+ minute miles, so we were on the road a loooonnnngggg time. Very hard on the feet and joints, but excellent training for the four hours plus it will take us to run the Marathon.

Luckily, we go to a faster (10 minute per mile) pace starting in January.

Venice Christmas 10K - personal best!

Okay, so I've only run 3 official 10ks in my life - but still, it feels good that I ran my first in 8.29, my second in 8.32, and my third, just last Saturday, in 8.13.

Woohoo! Of course, I ran way too fast the first couple miles and then felt rotten the rest of the race (weak legs, hot and pounding head). This was an attempt to get away from my usual method of being too conservative the first few miles and then zooming the last mile or two, but frankly, I have more fun that way.

I get the feeling that 10ks are not my event - I much prefer half-marathons because you have time to warm up and really enjoy yourself.

Note my weird thumbs - I can't seem to hold them any other way while running. Very silly. Oh, and yes, it was raining.

Roadrunners - up to 8 miles; still slow

The Roadrunners is trying a new training plan, building up the miles at a slower-than-usual pace for a while and then going back to fewer miles at race pace and building up the miles again. So we ran 8 miles at a very leisurely 11 minutes per mile, as opposed to our race pace of 10 minutes per mile.

I will miss next week, perhaps the week after, and then the first two weeks in November due to work commitments. ARGH! But if we really are going down in miles soon, it will be easy to do them on my own.

In other news, I ran the Santa Monica 5000 (but I did the 10K) on the 11th - did a respectable 52:54, which was nevertheless slower than last May's 52:34, darn it! I'd REALLY like to break 50 minutes on my next 10K.

LA Roadrunners back in action

I may not have been an energetic blogger, but I've been running all summer long -mostly 5 or 6 miles a run, about 4 times a week. Because I've kept my base fitness strong, I feel absolutely ready to move up to Group 6 from Group 7 of the LA Roadrunners (10 minute miles). We've beening running for 3 Saturdays and are up to 6 miles - no problems so far, obviously.

Goal - to finish the 2010 LA Marathon in under 4 hours 15 minutes.