Monday, August 25, 2014

Too Little, Too Late

Another strong long run yesterday, which is good and bad.  Good because, finally!  Bad because it seems a bit late to be hitting paces I was starting my training at last year. 

Oh well, it's 18 miles in the books and I'll take it.  In order to get my final goal marathon time, I'd have to go 62 seconds faster per mile (and add another 8.2 miles). 

Just not feasible, though I could see maybe doing one or the other if it were 30 degrees cooler. 

Rest of the weekend was a blur of errands and stuff, not very exciting, but I've got a very big week at work coming up, so glad to have had some time to get organized. 

We picked out a hotel in Nepal, which is nice.  I usually go back and forth on whether I want to have stuff booked in advance, but as we land at 10 p.m. or something and it's the first destination on our trip, we figured it would be good to have that lined up. 

10 comments:

  1. I think it totally is possible! You shouldn't be running your LRs at even close to goal MP anyway, right? I think you're in better shape than you're giving yourself credit for. Congrats on a good run!

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    1. Well, this particular long run was supposed to include some pace work miles, so more of a failure than it might appear for a typical long run...

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  2. Amazing run! It always amazes me how diligent you are about getting your runs in and how FAR you run. Fantastic and super inspirational.

    It's so hot and humid in Florida right now. I have to get my runs in around sunrise or else it won't get done.

    Have a wonderful week!

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    1. Much easier since I'm not also planning a wedding, raising a kid, etc!

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  3. As I said, you have to take the successes for what they are - as you say, it is done and that is good. Celebrate that, and then look to what you can learn from it.

    Cool on booking the Nepal hotel ... I'm a planner and so I don't like not having a place to stay - even before we had the kids to think about.

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    1. I'm torn. The planner in me likes having a hotel booked, the money-saver in me knows that in Asia, you can usually get better deals on the ground...

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  4. Your training plan seems tough! You are always doing such long runs & pace work. If you really don't expect to hit your goal pace, what do you do--try anyway & risk starting too fast or start slower at a pace you know is sustainable? Just curious how this works since I might be in the same boat some day.

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    1. Not sure I'm a good person to ask since my usual course is to do what I did on my long run -- instead of 18 miles with 8 at pace, I just do 18 miles easy. Usually, I have pace work in the middle, so I attempt to hit it and hold it, and if my cool-down has to be very slow, that's fine. At the track, I also aim to hit the goal pace on the first repeat and then hit it again on each repeat until I'm done (sometimes adding 15 seconds of rest time if it will help), but usually, even if I peter out toward the end, I make sure all but the last repeat or two are on track.

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  5. For my go at the Dallas Marathon, I’m just hoping to finish within the time limit of 6.5 hours. I’m really hoping to keep my pace at 12:30 or faster per mile.

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  6. Nepal! I really really wanted to go there as a Peace Corps Volunteer, but it's a very sought after assignment so it's challenging to get a spot. I know what you mean about booking ahead of time in certain places overseas, but at that hour you'll be happy you did. In Mozambique you can even go into the rooms, view them and then select the one you want which makes it easier to book once you're there.

    I enjoy reading your after thoughts about your long runs in particular. You have such great insight into your training and how you are progressing. I still think race day often brings out the best in us!

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