60 Days

So Today is exactly 2 months until the marathon, I can't believe it is getting so close! That means I actually have to start thinking about logisitcal things-yikes!


After my 17 miles on Saturday I came home to take and ice bath. I normally get a 20lb bag of ice and use that plus, anything in my freezer to try and make the ice slushie in my bathtub. Well the last few ice baths I have taken the ice seems to melt pretty quickly and I never feel there is enough. So I opted for another bag of ice- well that did the trick. I now understand why some people loathe ice baths- I literally felt my body going into shock as I sat down in the frigid water and started hyperventilating- I think I lasted very close to the full 15 minutes, and there was still a little ice left at the end. Normally I am very tight/stiff/sore the rest of the day after my long run, but I actually felt really good. A little stiff if I sat too long, but nothing like what it normally is, so I decided that 30-40 lbs will be the minmium for all future baths.

I spent the rest of Saturday not doing too much, running some errands, a little cleaning, groceries, etc. Sunday was pretty much the same, I had wanted to get in a short recovery-style run to get used to it, but I ran out of time, Oops!


So Monday morning, I slept pretty off and on last night, but woke up determined to fall naturally into my nice pre-built routine. Something was different this morning, dare I say, there was almost a chill in the air. It was 78 degrees ( I haven't seen a 7X* in at least 6 weeks) and there was a nice breeze- we have MORE rain coming today. It really felt like a well planned change, all the schools started back today and it seemed to be marking a slow decent into fall weather. I am sure now that I've talked about it, I have scared away the bearable temps, and they will scurry off and tell their hot, nasty, humid friends to return in their place.

Monday= Tempo, and today was supposed to be 8M with 5 @8:25. As soon as I looked at that this morning, I thought no way. Depsite how good my legs recovered over the weekend, my uber-tight calves has returned, and I have been having some Right ITB issues. Not wanting to anger either of them too much I decided I was going to have to play this run by feel, pick it up when I had it, and back off when I didn't.

8 Miles- 1:12:11, avg pace 9:01
Mile 1-  9:47
Mile 2-  8:25
Mile 3-  9:32
Mile 4-  8:24
Mile 5-  9:27
Mile 6-  8:24
Mile 7-  8:53
Mile 8-  9:19

So only 3 miles at the tempo pace I wanted, but I still another sub-9:00 minute mile and it kept my average pace in the range I wanted it in- solid effort. This was one of those cases where I just had to listen to my legs and do what was best for me/them this morning and now what I had written down sounded good when making my training schedule.

I have another 8 this week where I am hoping to do it with the first 5 at goal marathon pace and the last 3 at goal half marathon pace. I thought of this of course while running this morning, since this run wasn't as hard as I had originally planned it to be, and I thought that sounded like fun! Gives me a chance to get used to pacing naturally at both times!