An alternative title for this post could be “Thoughts from Today’s Race”. Last June, I ran my current half PR, 1:45. At the time, I was training for the Santa Rosa Marathon and a possible BQ (I did not BQ but that is another story). Today, I was thrilled with a 1:59 half. While I would have loved to run a 1:45 today, the truth is I have not put in the miles lately and BOY COULD I FEEL IT. The miles DO NOT LIE. End of story. If you do not put in the miles, you cannot expect a stellar result. RunWithRach said in a post recently (I am paraphrasing here) “If you want a 70% race, do 70% of the mileage”. Catchthemontherun posted a few articles on the topic this week. AndyWg just told me put in the mileage and the speed will come. I know that all of this is true. I felt it on the road today. Cardio wise I was fine but my legs were screaming for most of the race. I hit a couple sub 8 miles, to make up for the super slow race start (more on that in the race recap) but I felt like I had to work really hard to turn my legs over. I am thrilled that I ran into PostCollegeRunnerGirl because I am not sure I would have pushed the last few miles without her.
The point is, I have a lot of work to do between now and March 18 (49 days to be exact) to hit a 3:59:59 marathon. I will head back to the hills this week and eat the miles. I will commit to swimming once or twice a week while I build mileage (rather than trying to hit three swims). Spin will remain the same (3-5 classes).
Thank you awesome tumblrs for your support! I am so glad to be a part of the fitblr community. Go team!
Edit: In a ironic twist of fate, since writing this post I realized I left my Garmin in my friend’s car. I will likely not get it back for a week. I guess the Universe wants me to run by feel and not by time this week.
