Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Crazy Busy Girl

Hi friends, it's Tuesday, and as you might have guessed, I have been a crazy busy girl!


This weekend was back to normal with a Saturday morning long run. I realized it has been quite a while since I prepared for a long run from home with just me, it brought back memories of marathon training. Not sure I miss that.

While the temps were nice 67*, it was certainly warmer than what we have had recently, add in 97% humidity, and it was the perfect run to prepare for summer, I still can't decide if I prefer cold or hot running, I think 50* is ideal.

Long run was supposed to be 10 miles, with 7 @goal pace. Goal pace being my goal pace for gate which is kind of scary, but very doable. I gave myself a few back-off miles which helped tremendously, and overall I felt really good after this run.

11 miles- 1:37:33, 8:52 average pace
Mile 1-  9:26
Mile 2-  8:34
Mile 3-  8:31
Mile 4-  9:28
Mile 5-  8:47
Mile 6-  8:37
Mile 7-  8:11
Mile 8-  9:06
Mile 9-  8:31
Mile 10-  8:45
Mile 11-  9:37

So pretty much the most amazing long run I have ever done, actually, that had the makings of the most amazing half marathon I could have ever had if I had kept going.  My goal pace for Gate is approx. 8:41, not that I've checked or anything, and while a couple miles were a little higher, I really can't complain about the performance I put up. I *hope* that another run like this this upcoming weekend will be enough to give me a good race.


After my run I had to hit the road, I had a bridal shower to go to Saturday afternoon.




We celebrated this girl who is getting married in about 6 weeks. It was a St. Patrick's Day themed party, so I did my best to get into the spirit....




We had some snacks, played a game, and then got to the good stuff....


Several times at the shower people kept reminding me that I was next, yikes! It was fun watching her get into all these fun presents, there was a lot of fun stuff in there that I made mental notes to make sure I put on our registry ;)



Sunday, John and I ran errands and decided to embrace the beautiful day and went out for a long bike ride. I gave it a little more effort than I usually do on our leisurely Sunday rides and managed to average about 15.5 mph for our 25 mile bike ride.


On to Monday...A million wedding things that I had to catch up on, phone calls and emails to return and I found myself quickly at the end of the day.

I had a hill workout planned for the afternoon, what I did not plan for was 84* and 20mph winds. It literally felt like my marathon all over again, and I was SO happy I was only doing 5 miles and not 26.2.

Like literally the same run, up and over huge bridges, lots of wind, and sun, it was like de ja vu- crazy!
Since Gate has a HUGE bridge at mile 7.5 I went to do 3 bridge repeats, the first bridge is shorter, maybe 6/10 of a mile from one side to the other, the 2nd is a solid mile, maybe a little more from start to finish, and the last has a .5 mile climb and a .15 mile downhill, so a little funky.

5 Miles- 45:23, 9:05 average pace
Mile 1-  8:40
Mile 2-  9:08
Mile 3-  8:51
Mile 4-  9:34
Mile 5-  9:10

A successful run and no itb pain, thank goodness! I didn't realize how excited I was going to get about this race, but it is such a big deal here in Jacksonville, and it is the one I have really wanted to do since I started running and I haven't, so I am excited about that, plus I have lots of friends running it too!


Is there a big race on your radar that you haven't had the chance to do yet? If so, which one???

3 comments:

  1. Great run! Great blog too! What are you training for?

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  2. Nice long run! You're going to do great in your race!! I always find it SO hard to run in the wind.. That must have been torture!

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  3. Great job on the 11 miler! You are going to rock the half.

    And look how cute you are at the shower! :)

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