On the treadmill once again today; not because I needed to pace myself (okay, that's only half true) or any of the other 9 reasons I listed on Thursday, but because the outside weather was awwwwwful! Really awful. A big storm with predictions of up to 18" of snow was to start around midnight and continue through the night. When I got up, there was a slight dusting of snow. But it wasn't the snow that was stopping my preferred outdoor run, it was the wind; it was blowing totally horizontal at about 40 mph. And to top that, I think it initially rained before it snowed so underneath the snow, was a thin sheet of ice. I have no desire right now to slip and injure myself before Boston. So down to the basement I went with 8 miles at an 8:45 on my schedule. But instead, I ran 8 miles at an 8:30. I don't know why... but somewhere in the back of my head, I feel I have an 8:30 marathon in me (and it's NOT Boston!!! Really, I am not going to Boston with any goal time; I want to experience Boston, have a great time at Boston, learn from Boston and that's it....and if I want to run Boston again next year, I will take what I learned this year and THEN can run it for a time...but not this year; this year is for the whole Boston experience). I don't know if I my body is capable of a 8:30 marathon but something inside me tells me that if all the planets are aligned just right, I can. So I may as well train like I can and thus, I did my marathon pace run today at my "hopefully one day" marathon race pace :). I felt okay...not great but not bad. My legs, right where they bend, were hurting some; certain that this was related to yesterday's cycling class. I cranked up my iPod (I swear I'm going to need hearing aids before I am 50; the things we do just to cross a marathon finish-line) and got into a groove. The last mile I cranked the pace to an 8:00 for the first 800, a 7:45 for the next 400 and a 7:13 for the final 400. That felt great!!!
The wind stuck around for the entire day but very little snow so that's good for the half marathon tomorrow. I hope I don't freeze in my pre-race packet pickup assignment; I already have mega layers already laid out in anticipation. Took the boys to the Imax theater tonight to see 'Ring of Fire' - pretty cool, especially since it's right up my geology alley. Dinner at Spaghetti Factory after; it's been ages since I have been there and I have to say, I was amply disappointed in the menu, it's definitely not conducive to my diet but more so, there's just not much on it.
Anyway, I am way tired and need to get up at 5:30 so off to bed early on a Saturday night - yeah, I know how to live!
8 miles run at marathon race pace
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