Getting in the Groove

I ran my third ten-mile run of the week today. This was far and away the best yet. The weather was a little cooler and I went into it much more confident than I had the first two. The biggest aide was carrying a 16oz water with me. It was a little bit of a pain and it only lasted til about mile 7, but I didn't care. I never hit a wall and finished in somewhere between 1:30:00 - 1:40:00.

I am looking forward to this weekends long run. I'm definitely planning on doing somewhere between 14-18 miles. A lot will depend on the weather, the route and what time I start. This past week had gotten me off the regular schedule. I have missed the long runs from the three weeks previous so I needed to make up some miles. I also decided that I would try and get at least one 18-20 mile run in before the Montreal. I'm thinking it will come next weekend. I plan on tapering down the runs a bit the two weeks before the race and will probably run one 15-18 mile run a couple weeks before the Hartford along with some 8-12 mile runs. I felt as though I could have pushed it a couple more miles today, but was happy with ending this run strong and looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday.

I have seemed to find my pattern. I push it for 5-6 weeks and than take about ten days off. This isn't what I wanted or what I expected but it has worked for me. I get back after a break and am fresh and not afraid to push myself. Only two weeks ago, the idea of running ten mile runs made me nauseous to think about. Now, I can't wait to go 15.


From the beginning, I knew I would have to be flexible. Flexible to my work/vacation schedule. Flexible to how my body reacted and flexible to where I was mentally. I thank God for keeping me healthy and for a relatively cool Spring and Summer. If we were dealing with 90+ degree heat since May, I don't know if I would have ever gotten to this point. These past few runs were miserable because of the humidity and heat. However, knowing I had come this far and knowing I was getting close to the big races was what got me out there. I wouldn't have felt the same pressure two months ago.



The final thing is a little bit about my route this past week. I've been running a gorgeous bike path between the CT River and Windsor Locks Canal. I have started on the Suffield side and would run to the Center of Main Street Windsor Locks. The path is just about 4.75 miles and I run about a quarter mile more to the Subway around the corner to get or in today's case, fill up with water. It's a beautiful run. However, the overgrowth of plants, bushes and weeds has become pretty bad. I spoke a couple months ago about the need for towns to offer these type of bike/running paths. We are lucky enough to have one here in town and its time we make maintaining it a priority. Sounds like a great campaign issue for someone...