Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bumps in the Road

Our run started out cold and windy, a “feels like” temp of 14, but it was actually 32. Regardless we had a good turnout of runners and we were rewarded with a bumpy (Kathy calls hills, bumps), beautiful run through the Maple Ridge area between Brookside and Utica Square. It’s so great to catch up on everyone and share running experiences. As I talked to one runner about my pitiful Dallas marathon (12/14/08), she empathized because she had a similar experience at Chicago. Then I met Wade, who is training for his first marathon, and I shared how life-changing the process of training and running my first marathon was and how much more respect I had for marathons after running my second marathon. After my first marathon, I couldn’t wait to run another one and after my second marathon, I questioned whether I would ever run another one, but I knew that would pass. So here I am, mapping out my strategy and runs for my Spring marathon, most likely the OKC Memorial. I’ve been reading an article by Greg MacMillan that Dave shared with me that will help me plan my runs better and maintain a reasonable pace while still getting stronger and faster.
I felt really good after today’s run, I tried to maintain a 10 min. pace but hovered around 9:30 and did 10:30 on the hills.

2 comments:

  1. Wow a 9:30 pace. I only dream about a 9:30 pace. Great running. Is the article by Greg MacMillan on the internet?

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  2. That was a good solid pace for you, Paula. Keep it up!

    My group took off ahead of me, so I did not stay within my planned pace. Instead, I rushed off trying to catch up. Here are my splits for the first nine miles: 8:05, 7:59, 8:52 (this included the big hill up to Yorktown), 8:46 (at that point I caught the group at Swan Lake), 9:30 (included time at the water stop), 8:01, 8:07, 8:14, 8:52 (I walked part of this mile due to cramps in my right quad). So, 4 of my miles were within the planned range. The other 5 were faster than marathon goal pace. Afterward, I added five miles that were in the right range.

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