I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's fun!

When I started training for marathon #7 on New Year's Eve, I had plugged in all my workouts into my little planner and knew that while I wasn't going for another BQ, I was hopefully going to PR on a course I've run 4 times.

Little did I know that my newest harebrained idea was going to involve running marathons on consecutive weekends and following it up with another one 6 weeks later.  Definitely qualifying me for Marathon Maniacs and participating in 2 Loopfests to boot!

Fortunately I had a decent base so I was able to modify my 11-week plan into a 10-week plan so that I'd be ready to properly taper for Shamrock and still get 2 20-milers under my belt.

Today I made the epiphany that since I was no longer really gunning for speed or time--but simply to finish--I really should perhaps think a little bit more about my training plan.  Or not.  I figure I will finish and any sort of extra speed or boost I get from training like I'm going for a 3:32:xx marathon will maybe help me out.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

But that's kind of fun too. I know that my body is physically capable of doing it so I'm just going to stick to my plan. If I can make it through this training cycle and the workouts feel decent, I know that I could have it in me to train for a 3:30:xx at Rehoboth in December.  Maybe that's getting too greedy, but the confidence I got in shaving over 17 minutes off my marathon time in a year is hopefully enough to carry me to another PR.

Anyway, I'm feeling relatively good and still have lots of great mojo left from December.

Aside from the fact that I was relegated to the treadmill ALL last week due to weather and well, life, I feel like running is going well for me right now.

I was supposed to do these workouts this week:
Tuesday: 4 @9:12
Thursday: 6 tempo with 4 @7:47
Friday: 4 @9:12
Sunday: 14 @9:12

What I actually did:
Monday: 4 @8:34
Wednesday: 6 speed with 6X800 @ 3:29, 3:26, 3:20, 3:15, 3:09, 3:05
Thursday: 4 total, 3 @8:34, 1 starting at 8:34 and increasing by .1 mph every 1/10th mile to 7:30 pace
Saturday: 14 @8:34

Running on the treadmill definitely keeps me in check both ways.  It helps keep me from running my easy runs too fast (well, it's still faster, but not sub-8s) and helps me complete my speedwork when I feel like my stomach is going to come through my esophagus.

I loved doing the 800s though and I felt like a rock star when I finished. Probably because there was a one-person dance party in the lady cave...

The long run was awful though. I had intended to run with Heidi (northern lass) on Saturday morning, but it was crazy storming and I even got 2 flash flood watch warnings texted to my phone. I had a work self-review to complete and I knew I wanted to finish it before Adam got home from work, so I trudged to the 'mill and watched a movie. My Kindle died about 3/4 of the way through and I just said to heck with it and listened to music instead.

The only good part about the run was that I had a very delicious peppermint Gu that BHop sent me for winning his change counting contest.

I had thought it was supposed to rain all day according to the weather news, but just after 3pm, it was gloriously sunny outside.  I was so mad that I was stuck inside doing my stupid work review.

Today, I made up for all those dumb treadmill runs like a caged beast.  I started the first mile with a little pep in my step, but I was shocked when I looked at my split: 7:28.  I really though I was close to 8:00.  I tried to reel back and keep it comfortable until about mile 4 when I figured I would just finish strong since I felt so good. The last 5.2 were in 7:29, 7:23, 7:13, 7:01, 6:58, last .2 in 1:17. 

I was spent, but in a good way. Everything felt good, the sun was shining, I was wearing short sleeves (and a Loopfest shirt at that!) in January, etc.

Now that the holidays are over, I have been back to making dinner pretty much every night at home.  I got lazy for awhile when I had so much to do, but I found my kitchen mojo again.

I made beer chili:

Lamb with sauteed greens and roasted root veggies:

I even cooked up a little post-run snack on Saturday. Normally I don't pull out pots or pans when I'm cooking for one, but I decided I was worth it (hah!):

Date night was the exception this week.  We went out for Mexican and I had to have a Coronarita:

The next night Adam and I went out just by ourselves and we split wings--my favorite post long-run dinner--and laughed until our sides hurt at Anchorman 2.


The only other excitement this week was that the little fuzzies had to go to the vet for their preventative care.  Torrance, the younger BT got out with just shots and a few pokes and prods.  Luxy gets a yearly deep clean of her teeth and we had to drop her off as they put her under general anesthesia.  Poor pookie had elevated liver levels and they had to do some more tests before they could complete the cleaning.  She was not a happy camper when she got home:

She got lots and lots of extra snuggles!