12 weeks of marathon training is now being shortened by a week. Because I have now talked myself into thinking that I can do something completely crazy--go for marathons on back-to-back weekends. Any and all advice about making both of them happen injury-free from you Maniac veterans out there are more than welcomed!! Adam is most concerned about me hurting myself which is a legitimate concern considering I've never done something like this.
My thought is to run Shamrock with a buddy (or many buddies) and try to just relax. Probably aiming somewhere between a 4:00-4:30 pace? I dunno. The second marathon is in Atlanta and is super hilly and will have no Loopsters. I'm kind of sad that it isn't in the reverse because I know I'd had a lot more support if I was able to run them in reverse order. Depending on how I feel, I will likely race with a pace group between 4:30-5:00. Am I selling myself short? Am I trying to run too fast? I have no effing clue...
Anyway, after those 2 marathons in March, I will need to keep up my fitness level for the Flying Pig in May. Then I plan to scale back for summer time and just run to run for a few months. I signed up for Rehoboth part II for December 2014 and maybe make a sub-3:30 attempt if all things are going fantastically well?
Big ambitions, y'all.
Anyway, the first week of official training has me scooting up my long runs to squeeze them in before the next race. Fortunately, doing a 10 at the beginning of the week and 12 miler at the end helped me get on track.
Plan was supposed to be 5 @9:15 Tuesday, 6 tempo with 4 @7:49 Thursday, 5 @9:15 Friday, and 10 @9:15 Sunday.
Actual was 10 @7:32 Tuesday, 5 @8:34 on Wednesday, 6 tempo (7:48, 7:21, 7:11, 7:10, 7:00, 7:27) on Friday, and 12 @7:52 Sunday.
I definitely felt the effects of jumping my mileage and speed back up today. It was a tough, cold run on not enough sleep, but I have so much mojo left from my BQ finish that I am living on my "you have to want it" mantra.
I will likely be running a lot on the 'mill this week because of the darkness. But feeling fortunate that I have a safe place to go to get my training in when I need to.
Anyway, I have a lot to catch up on since Christmas as I last blooped with my quizzical year-end recap.
So let's take a little trip back in time and see what I've been up to for the past 12 days.
We hosted Christmas at our house this year. Started off with coffee, mimosas, swiss chard and 3-cheese quiche, homemade yeasted cinnamon rolls, fruit, bacon, and shrimp:
I took a sampling for quality control purposes:
The gifts were deep with 11 adults. We started with this pile:
And then it grew into the family room:
So it took a few hours to open and ooh and aah over it all:
I got some great runner swag:
I kept hoping up to attend to various things in the kitchen. I made an herb-encrusted standing rib roast stuffed with to-die-for (if I may say so myself) a portabello and herb stuffing served alongside a whiskey gravy and horseradish cream sauce:
My mom brought a Honey-Baked ham for meat selection #2 and for the sides I made steamed green beans, croissants (mail-order, I get a break somewhere!), roasted root vegetables (fennel, carrots, onions, beets, parnips), and au gratin potatoes:
Fortunately, I had set the table the night before:
After doing a round of dishes, we sat down for a slice of peppermint meringue frosted and chocolate ganached chocolate layer cake. Was probably the ugliest cake I've ever made, but it tasted pretty good:
A few days after Christmas, my friend Angela and her boyfriend came to Atlanta for the weekend. We had a great time catching up at our local watering hole:
The party continued back at our house where we broke out Cards Against Humanity and late-night mimosas:
I ran my last run of the year on New Year's Eve:
And then took advantage of my local Fleet Feet's sale by picking up some new tanks and a pair of Kinvara 4's:
I tested them Wednesday on the 'mill and took them for a real spin on Friday's tempo:
They proved to be nice and speedy:
Since many of my evenings look like this:
I have been making a little bit more of an effort to eat a little more green:
And throw a little fish into my protein mix:
But sometimes you just need some comfort food:
Because these slackers make it just so easy to fall into bad habits:
Fortunately, I am still able to pull myself out of a cozy bed on a rare weekend day off to go running amid the ice:
It was foggy, chilly, and I had the trails to myself:
But it really was kind of serenely peaceful:
And for my first 30+ mile week after Rehoboth, I am pretty satisfied with my run:
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