Monday, January 29, 2007

Time to get strong

OK so I did not have a very good marathon on 1-14. I did do better than I thought I would do and I did do as well as I deserved. My time was 4:48.
My training for the Rock and Roll Marathon in Arizona did not go well. My foot, my plantar facietis really bothered me alot until I got the cortizone shot a few weeks before the marathon and I was so slow. I did not even attemp to run with any of the LT people doing the marathon. The few times I did try to run with them it only made me feel frustrated. I would rather just run by myself then struggel to keep up and end up running far behind anyways.
I did get in a pretty decent 21 mile training run at least, Thanks to Linda who ran the middle 12 miles with me. She was not training for a race so did not mind putting up with my slow pace and walk breaks.
I really don't get why the big slow down. I have run all year with the plantar facietis which started early December of 2005. I had a really good Twin cities Marathon this past fall- I PR'd with 4;25 (My previous best at Twin Cities was 4:42) and then followed that up 2 weeks later- Whistle stop in Ashton Wi with 4:19, my best time ever. After that it seemed I could hardley even run a 10 pace.
I did the Winter Carnival !/2 Marathon on Saturday. I went by myself, I felt great- My time was 2:08 to 2:10, So I am feeling alot stronger and my running feels good.
It is time to get strong.
I will try to make sure and run 30 miles a week, 15 during the week and 15 on the weekend. I will also cross train on the stationary bike and eliptical trainer and be consistent with my strangth training. By the second week in Feb I want to get to 35 miles a week. I have got to increase that for my spring 50 mile race.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Starting out

I ran my first marathon in the fall of 2004. I imediately became hooked.
I had joined a running club that summer -one that stated new runners welcome, I was a new runner who just ran her first 10k and needed more information on my new hobby. I had met some runners at my first 10k who were so nice, they told me about their running club- Salubrious, they had a marathon training class that was just starting. I also had a flyier on my vehicle from this club, it stated "you too can run a marathon" they were still able to get you into the The Twin Cities marathon which was officially closed for applications except running clubs were give some late entries. I took home the flier laughing at the thought of me running a marathon. The flier does state if you are running this race today and regularly running around something like 20-25 miles you can run a marathon. Well I was... but me? I went to the first meeting only because the flier also stated they also accept new runners, that was more like me- new runner not marathon runner. Two weeks after joining the running group after my second 10 mile run ever I sent in my application for the Twin Cities Marathon. The philosophy was simple enough- If you can run 10 you can run 12, if you can run 12 you can run 14 etc.... So throughout the summer of 2004 I built up my milage a couple miles at a time, having a wonderful time and getting to know some of the nicest people. It was a stuggle, still is -some days more than others. I did that first marathon in 4:43 only with the help and support of alot of other runners, especially Jackie who also ran her first marathon. This was the only marathon I ran with the same person the entire marathon.
The next year 2005 I did 8 marathons 26.2 miles) or 50k races (31 milers), the same for 2006. I do both trail and road marathons.
My long term goal is to do 50 marathons by age 50. I did my first marathon at age 45 so that would be a 5 year project. I should be able to accomplish this.