Week 13 is in the books, the marathon is 12 weeks from today. I am feeling very confident about this. I almost wrote "nothing but confidence" there but decided not to because I don't want to sound too cocky. I know this will take a lot more work and will not be easy. But I am confident I am up to the task. I'll reserve the right to change this tune after my first ever 17 mile run next Sunday.
While I have the occasional aches and pains, my legs and body are holding up well to the increased training. I have had no injuries (knock on wood), though I have been paying attention to my IT bands. I am probably just paranoid as I have had no pain during runs from the ITB, just a little tenderness afterwards. Seems like I've read too many stories of people getting knocked off course by ITBS.
I've actually felt so good running lately that I've been tempted to add in more. So far I've resisted. Yesterday was a bit of a cutback in long run mileage at "only" 12 miles. I ran with a buddy from work and we had an awesome run. 12.1 miles, a decent amount of rolling hills, and managed a 10:33 pace. To put that in perspective for me, that's about 1 minute faster than I've been running long runs solo. It's also only 11 seconds off my last half marathon pace. It's also only about 5 seconds off my "best case" marathon pace. Why is it that we run faster with others? Sure seems to be the case with me.
On the weight loss front I seem to be losing again. Quite possibly due to the increased training. I'm down in the 194-195 range now, and actually weighed in below 190 right after my long run yesterday. I know that weight isn't real, but it's kinda cool to see numbers like that on the scale! It would be awesome to run the marathon in the 180-185 range.
Thought I'd start throwing my mileage in these. Here's a summary to date, I'll just include the current week from here on out.
Week 13: 24.6 Miles, 12.1 mile long run
Week 14: 26.7 Miles, 14.5 mile long run
Week 15: 21.3 Miles, 15.1 mile long run
Week 16: 24.2 Miles, 13.0 mile long run
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1 year ago
Sounds like things are going well. Good stuff.
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ReplyDeleteHow incredibly inspiring you are. I have only started my weight loss journey but just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that it is blogs like yours that keep people inspired to continue to move forward. I know as little about running as is possible as you can imagine but I wish you all the success in the world. I will be checking back to see your progress in your training and cannot wait to see a photo of you finishing your first marathon. Congratulations!
Matt