Fidgeting

Definitely feeling anxious. For the second time now I want to go for a run even though it's a rest day. I seem to have a lot of nervous energy these days. It would be great if I could save it all up and then tap into it on Sunday. I tried to look at the profile of the course. They don't have one posted on the race website but I made a crude one using the pedometer function on Google maps. There appears to be a good-sized hill from mile 7 to mile 8. That will be difficult as mile 8 tends to be the crux for me. Luckily, after that it appears to be pretty flat. I need to work on some visual imagery or mantras to get me through the rough spots.

My new PR

I ran a 9:06 mile today. Technically a new PR but since it was only for ~3.5 miles I don't know if it really counts. I wanted to see what I could do if I really focused but I also didn't want to be foolish about it so close to race day. I probably won't push it anymore, just to be safe. But after the race (and a recovery week or so) I think I'll have to play around with some speed work and see what happens. It still feels really weird to be running such short distances when I've got 13.1 miles to run on Sunday. Today I tried convincing myself that the speed made up for it a bit but I wasn't buying it. I guess we'll just have to see.

Grrrr

I do not run well first thing in the morning. My average pace over the 5 miles this morning was OK but the standard deviation was horrible. I was all over the place. My legs are just not awake that early in the morning. This doesn't instill me with confidence for next Sunday. Today was my last "long" run (I don't think 5 miles can be considered long anymore) and I really wanted to feel better about it. I started thinking that perhaps my pedometer wasn't working properly but since this same pedometer recorded my PR two days ago it's just too sad to consider the possibility that it was wrong. Besides, it's a poor runner that blames her gadgets, right? I can't believe the race is only 7 days away.

Picking up speed

9:19. That blows the doors off of anything I've done in the past. Yeah, I've run faster than that for very short intervals of time but this was over 4 miles at that pace. Of course, there's no way I can keep up that pace for 13.1 miles but it's nice to know that I can do it for the short runs. I'll be interested to see what I can pull off on my next short run. It was 39 degrees out there, too. I'm having a hard time imagining it as "warm" as 45 degrees at 7am next Sunday when it's been in the 30's at that time of morning this week. I think I need to find some gloves.

Itchin' to run

Today is the first time that I've wanted to run even though it's not a "run" day for me. Today is a rest day - one of two that I get each week - and normally I'm happy to rest on those two days. But today I actually feel restless and would love to go for a run. Perhaps it's the decreased mileage that my legs sense. Maybe it's pent up frustration from other areas of my life. Whatever it is, I'm itching to go for a run. But it's a rest day and I'm trying to respect the schedule. Tomorrow is a 40 minute run. Maybe I'll try for another PR.

The clothes make the run

Sometimes a good run can sneak up on you. At the start of my run today I wasn't feeling into it - the first 5 minutes or so I was running my normal pace but I felt slow. After another 5 minutes the kinks were working out and I was doing better. Then all of the sudden I was running a sub-10-minute mile. I realize that doesn't sound very impressive but that's fast for me. And I kept it up for the rest of the run - just over 4 miles. Not sure what happened but it was pretty cool. It's got to be the new running clothes, right?

Getting cold

When I checked weather.com before heading out for my run this morning it said "44 degrees - feels like 38". They weren't kidding. I'm not used to running in the cold. Next time around I'm going to have to do more of my training at the appropriate temperature. It took me 3 miles to get into the groove because of the cold but after that the rest of the run was OK. Eight miles today and my pace was actually faster than usual for a long run. I sweated off about 2 pounds this morning, despite the cold. Two weeks to go.