week 1 of vegas training

ok, so i just started back training, after a semi-retirement of over a year and a half. the road back to training has been a long one.

fall of 2007 was some of the best marathon training i have ever had, EVER. i was really sticking to speed work and running my long runs harder. i slimmed up a little, and found a boatload of confidence i have never had. philly was a PR by 7 minutes. i had hoped to crack the 4 hour, but i think i owe that 6 minutes over 4 to a hilly course (after they promised it was flat - good thing i did some hill training though), rain, and temps that dropped during the race. it was less than ideal, but an amazing day for me.

my plan was to run the mississippi blues marathon in january of 08 for 'fun'. fun is a termed used way loosely when talking about marathons. looking back, it was fun. at the time, i wanted to die. at mile 18, after running the first half with a friend and a few miles on my own, i met up with another friend. we grabbed our cameras and planned to finish the last 8 miles goofing off. and we did just that, after a few beers, lots of curse words, plenty of walking, and some tell all photos. that was just a moment in my training because the next race would be new orleans where i'd really go for it. and up until my 22 miler, training couldn't have been more perfect. new orleans was one of the worst days of my life (running wise) cause i dropped out at mile 14. i fully believe that i peaked a few weeks too early in training and my 22 mile run was my marathon. on that run, i averaged 8:35 and total time was 3:08. what a day. still my best run to date, training and racing.

so, after new orleans, i hated running, but i thought that if i pushed through, had some fun, i'd be ok. wrong. two or three different times, i took more than a week or two off, and struggled to find my groove when i was running. i decided that training might help so i signed up for the houston marathon. a few weeks before, i decided to not go. i just couldn't run a marathon, wasn't ready.

spring came around, and i was having a blast in life. will keep that to myself cause it led to the worst summer of my life. but, my recovery from that has led me back to training. i finally feel like 'i'm back'. for weeks now, i've been consistent, hitting weekly runs, long runs, etc. so here i am, signed up and beginning my training for vegas. this week, i added speed work back. it was terrible, but what can i expect right? i haven't done speedwork since the spring. but i did it, was out there running hard again. as bad as it hurt, it feel great! my first long run was 12 miles, and it might be my best long run in months. i didn't knock it out the park, but i felt stronger than i have in a while.

so this week, i got in 31 miles of running, taught 3 spin classes, and did 1 yoga class. sunday ends my training week so a bike ride tomorrow is still possible. week 1 is in the books, let's see what i can do for week 2!

run for your life!