Day 29

5am gym I missed you!!!! It was good to get up and run. Breakfast was eggs with bacon, avocado, and veggies. I got breakfast down like a pro. Lunch was a turkey sandwich, chips, and then my coworker laid an oatmeal creme pie on my desk. Damn her. Then I sat in a four hour training and wanted to die. After work, I finally realized that I'm really not going to cook this week. I stopped at Pei Wei and got a small Thai Chicken with brown rice and a cup of Hot and Sour soup. It was delicious! Then it was dog park time and then down to some serious marathon training business. (17 weeks out!!!)

Today's task was figuring out my 5K pace time. This pace is the starting point for figuring out your paces for the 3 runs a week. I had to run 3 x 1 mile repeats with a min rest in between, which I did this morning. My mile times were 13:32, 13:41, and 13:37.

So you take the average and then look up the time on a chart. Talk about feeling like a fat ass, the chart didn't go far enough for my time :(

Well I just took the slowest time (12:57 pace) and then you go to another set of charts to find your paces for the 3 runs (speed repeats, tempo, and long run). So here's where we ended up. Ironically, my long run pace is the slowest I can go and still run Dallas marathon in the 6.5 hour cut-off.

I'm terrified that I won't finish in the 6.5 hours. How awful would it be to be running and they tell you the course is closing after all the hard work and telling everyone I know I'm running a marathon? I've gotta make every day count with workouts and healthy eating. Every pound lost means I can go a little faster. Plus speed and tempo training will help. I never actually paid attention to doing different types of runs (I barely pay attention to pace), which is probably why I've never seemed to break the 12:00 pace on a consistent basis.

So I'm getting down to business. I've started my training journal so I'm beyond official (ha!). This will be an adventure and so much can change in 4 months! I'm giving up Friday nights for Saturday morning long runs. I'm giving up cute shoes to protect my feet. I'm damn near going to give up Alcohol (3 drink limit!). Here's to losing weight, blisters, sore muscles, GU, ice baths, carb loading (yum), and living in compression socks! 

Eat. Sleep. Run. Repeat.