One More For The Road

I am nothing if not honest with myself. I might lie to the rest of you, but never to myself. This method usually works well.

 Which means that I can easily see why some would say that I am freakin’ nuts. Even other runners will tell you that my goals are quite lofty. Not only am I doing another marathon (what, was one not enough torture?) but now I want to shave twenty minutes off my time??

Well, a girl can dream, right? And this girl is dreaming of Boston. And if I can see 3:40:00 or less on that clock when I cross the finish line, then I am in. But even having that dream I was waiting…..waiting…………running…………not actually entering the race until, well, later because I wanted to give myself time to ease into the idea. Or just procrastinate. Or something.

 Until I got an email from Chelsea, telling me that the race has a good cahnce of selling out. Not only that, but she had decided to run it after I prodded and pushed and begged (don’t worry, it was very dignified) and THEN she entered. Before me. So I had to.

And now I am scared shitless. What if my knee doesn’t get me through the next months? What if the first marahton was a fluke? What if I’m not able to run the 26.2 again? What if aliens land on Earth the day before and they cancel the race and I’m out the 70 bucks?

 *sigh* I am such a drama queen. My knee feels better than it has in months. My running is progressing nicely. I did another 15 miler last weekend (I’m not going to make the jump to 17 miles for another month or so, since I am already way ahead of most marathon training programs). And while aliens landing on Earth could happen, I highly doubt they would cancel the 25th annual CIM just for that.  

 So anyway, pertinent information (I’m too lazy to see if I already posted this, so skip it if you’ve heard it before).

 December 2, 2007 —–> I figure my Christmas present will be qualifying for Boston. And my birthday present will be running Boston.

Here is the course map:

http://www.runcim.org/images/map.jpg

 And the course profile:

http://www.runcim.org/images/courseelev.jpg

It’s a net down hill (sweeetttt!) with little (and some not so little) hills thrown in there to keep you from getting board. Would it be cocky of me to say that I really think I can qualify for Boston? I don’t know where the confidence comes from, and I am fully prepared for the confidence to come and go and be mostly gone by The Big Day. Well. I should say that I am confident when Drama Queen Callie doesn’t take over my brain.

Anyone know a good exorcist?

I broke the 14 mile barrier!!!!! Hell, I didn’t just break it, I blew it out of the friggin’ water!

For my last 3 long runs, I have set out with the goal of getting 14 miles in. Somehow, for various reasons, this hasn’t happened. I forgot to turn left. I had to change my route to go pee. I decided mid run to change things up for a change of scenery. You’d think that the variations would (at some point) pay off by being longer than I intended. NOPE! Every time I change my route once out there, it ends up shaving miles.

This happens routinely, and is as much mental as physical. Last year my tough distances were 16, 18, and 20. For some reason, it took several attempts before I was able to accomplish those distances. I remember setting out for a 20 miler on a really tough course, and coming in at 19.65 or something.

When I say that it’s mental as well, it’s because there are some distances that seem so. freakin. long. that there is always doubt that I can finish them. And I seem to place far too much importance on certain distances. “If I can’t even do 14 miles, how can I do 26.2?” It becomes a mental game of confidence and fear, and fear often wins.

But Saturday? Confidence won. I felt good, and strong, and knew that I needed the boost of those 14 miles if I was going to keep myself motivated. I was meticulous in my planning and mapping of the run, and memorized it totally before leaving the house. And, what’d'ya know, but I had to pee before an hour was up. Which meant changing my route. Of course I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to tack on the distance I had lost. It’s hard to add it to the end of the run, and take a left away from home when you’ve already run 13 miles and you know that a right means 5 more minutes until you can stretch and rest and eat. Honestly? THAT is willpower.

But I did it on Saturday. When I could have turned left at the corner and headed for home, I turned left earlier and circled back on the path away from the house. It added nearly two miles to my run, and TADA! Now I have no fear of that 14 mile barrier. Although, 18 is already looming in my vision and is enough to scare the crap out of me.

 Final stats for Saturday’s run:

2 hr 21 min 32 sec (15.64 miles at 6.6 mph)

9:03/mile

Next week I am going to try 17 miles, before taking it back down to 10 for a recovery week the last week of June. But, after this last long run, I can say that the marathon finish line doesn’t seem so impossible. Qualifying for Boston? Still seems out of my reach. But at least I am beginning to feel like the first finish wasn’t a fluke.

I’m baaaaccckkk! Back to the public blogging world, and back to the marathon training.

That’s right, kiddies, it’s marathon training season again. Come December 2, I will hopefully be qualifying for Boston near the steps of the State Capitol.

I’m excited! I’ll be running from Folsom to Sacramento, on one of the fastest courses in the Western United States. People come from all over the country to run this course and try to BQ (Boston Qualify, in case you were wondering ). The course has a net downhill elevation, with quite a few uphills scattered throughout. I can’t believe I am thinking about doing another one. It’s a bit like childbirth. All the pain seems hazy when you’re given enough time to get over it.

Right now I am just trying to get my long runs up over 2 hours every Saturday. 12 miles will be my base, and I will add 20 minutes each weekend. I ran 2 hours last weekend, so this weekend will be 2 hours and 20 minutes, then 2 hours and 40 minutes, then 3 hours. Then back down to 2 hours and I start all over again.

 I’ll try to be better about updating this blog. I forget sometimes (I think I still have the pregnancy stupids =D ) but I’d like to have a running record of my training.

 For anyone who’s interested, here’s the link to the marathon:

  http://www.runcim.org/data/marathon.html

 Here’s the 10K Eric and I are doing in September (where he has challenged me and our friend Erica to a race, and I have every intention of kicking his ass):

http://www.hobfunrun.com/

 And this is the half marathon I’ll do in October as a training run for the marathon:

http://www.citytothesea.org/index.htm

That’s what coming up in the running world! Stay tuned for more information!