Running in Circles

Today’s Run

Time – 1:06:24
Distance – 6.6 miles
Pace – 10:02 min/mi
Elevation – 199 ft.

It was COLD! Did a loop around downtown because it’s the least windy and warmest place to run. Good recovery run, but my achilles hurt on both ankles afterwards. Could be the new shoes, could be that I was on my feet most of the afternoon for the church’s sausage supper. Either way, the run felt good. Made some decisions about the spring marathon and my anticipated race pace.

It feels like I’m just going around and around and around…

When the only warm place to run in about 3 square miles, it can be a little boring to run in circles around the same neighborhood. You also start to get strange looks from the guy sitting by the window in the local bar when you go by for the third time…

I’m going to make a goal for the marathon in the spring. I’m gonna try and go sub–4:00. That’s a 9:06/mile pace. It will be hard to do for 26.2 miles, but I think that I can make it happen. I’ve got that much speed in my legs right now for 10 miles, but I have to see if I can do it for that long. I figure if I hold a 9:00–9:05 pace for the first 20 miles, then the last 10K needs to be sub–1:00:00. That I think I can do.

I’m going to spend the next two months with lots of easy pace runs with the fast Wednesdays with the group at Runwell and reasonable long runs on the weekend. The marathon plan I have starts on January 22 and goes 12 weeks. It has 3 long runs of 3 hours or more, which is where I should be able to get to 20–22 miles. I’ll need to figure out all of my paces for the workouts, but I’m excited to do this!

Countdown to Baby Girl – 15 days to go!