04/22/07 Trail Run

65 and sunny today - it doesn't get any better than that. I headed out to the metropark to run on my favorite trail. 9 miles through the woods on a perfect day!

04/12/07 - 04/20/07 Finally, Great Running Weather!

Training has been going well! This past week has seen the arrival of spring (hopefully for good this time) and some great runs.

4/12 - 8 miles
4/14 - 18 miles with 15 at the pace I hope to run the marathon at. Whew, this was a tough workout, but I was able to hold the pace fairly easily (I did need a nap later, though .....)
4/15- Easy 5 mile run on the park trails
4/17 - 11 miles
4/18 - Track workout (5) 800 meter repeats, 8 miles total
4/19 - Best workout of the week with my TNT training partner who is back doing great with her training after a serious health problem that didn't keep her down for long. 5 miles enjoying catching up on things :)
4/20 - 17 miles around the Shaker Lakes. Part of it enjoying the company of my sister. What a beautiful day.

Only one more week of hard training to go, including the last 20 miler, then the training will taper back to rest up for the big day!

Thanks to everyone for your support, encouraging me in my training, listening to me complain about the weather, and helping to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have exceeded my fundraising goal thanks to your help!

04/11/07 Track Workout

Today's schedule called for some interval training at the track. Since the high school track is still covered with snow, I found a street that measures 1000 meters. The workout consisted of a 2.5 warm-up run to get to "my street", 5 x 1000 meter repeats in 4:30 each,with 2 minutes of jogging in between each repeat, then a 2.5 mile run back home. It was a tough workout, I was pretty tired by the fifth repeat, but it was nice to break up the monotony of just running mile after mile.

04/10/07 Loops in the Hood....

It feels like someone turned the calendar back a couple of months. All of the sidewalks are buried under the snow, so it was back to running loops in my neighborhood. 12 miles - felt strange to see all the snow but hear the birds chirping too!

Spring, Summer , WINTER

This pretty much sums up last weeks training!

The week started out spring-like, with 5 miles on Monday.

11 summery miles for Tuesday. The temperature got up to a record 80 degrees.

Wednesday, it was 60 when I left the house for my run, it then started to rain, and by the time I was done it was snowing! I somehow managed to get in my interval work - 8 miles with 5 X 600 repeats. Next time I will turn on the weather before I head out!

Thursday - winter returned in full force - 9 snowy, windy miles. Blech. I figured this would have to be the last snowy run of the year, it's April, right? Wrong!

Saturday - Our Team in Training group run was cancelled due to snow! I ended up slogging out 17 miles in snowy, windy conditions. OK, I'm pretty used to this by now, but the ice pellets hitting me in the face the last couple of miles were just unnecessary!

Sunday - 26" of snow on my deck! I pulled out the snow shoes and went for a 5 mile plod around the neighborhood.

Hopefully spring will make a reappearance again.....

03/31/07 Practice Makes Perfect (In Theory!)

The marathon training schedule called for a long run of 21 miles today. The purpose of these runs, besides the obvious need to train for surviving the full 26.2 mile run is to have a dress rehearsal for what you are going to do on race day. It's never good to find out in the middle of a marathon that your new socks give you blisters, your shoes (or shorts!) don't fit quite right, Gatorade gives you a tummy ache, or you should not have coffee before you run, but a bagel is fine. So this run was about practicing not only running, but what I am going to wear on marathon day, as well as what I will eat before and during (McDonald's always tastes good afterwards!)

This was a solo run, but enjoyable. I ran from my house out to the North Chagrin reservation, where I detoured onto the bridle trails until the end of the park, then back home. I tried using some Clif Block Energy Chews and water for fuel and this worked great. The energy chews tasted pretty good (Cranraspberry) and were easy to eat. I will just carry them with me during the race, and take only water from the aid stations. (I already know that Gatorade and I do not get along!) I finished the run feeling pretty strong, so that was a good confidence booster. This will probably be my longest training run ( I will run one more 20 miler) before the marathon. Unlike races of shorter distances, it is not adviseable to train up to the race distance - it just wears you down too much and leaves you too tired to train properly the next week.

Only 7 more weeks until race day!