Dogs and Cats Living Together

My officemate, Bella.

This week's training had to work around issues involving my dogs and cats. My new puppy, Bella, has been working very hard to train me and The Genius. She does not understand why we haven't figured out that anything that smells like us, and the grosser the better, will be confiscated and destroyed if it is within 3 feet of the ground. One Garmin 410 strap, 1 set of headphones and an MP3 player later, we are figuring it out. She likes the running stuff, probably because it is so smelly.

All in all, she is acclimating to her new digs well. The dogs are all getting along fine. The cats are mostly fine, but one of them (Moose) had to go to the vet on Friday evening to try to unblock his peepee. He's still at the vet because even after unblocking his urethra, he still isn't peeing on his own. They have confirmed that he has stones that need to be surgically removed. Poor guy. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, so I hope to bring him home that night.

Logan + Bella = Hound Love.

Aside from the animal drama, I had a great week of training.

11-17 Feb

79 miles

7 runs

19 mile long run

Wednesday's workout was noteworthy in that I ran the 2 mile repeats 25-30 seconds faster than I did a month ago. That's significant progress! I wore my new Nike Lunaracers on this run too, and I loved them. These will be my marathon shoes, so I need to get them broken in!

sparkly new shoes!

What I was most proud of was my workout Friday. It isn't anything to get excited about if you only look at the paces. What made it special was the fact that I started it at 9 p.m. after a rather stressful day. I had already decided to can the workout and just do an easy run given the late start. Once I got out and was at the turn around point, I decided I would see how I felt in a few miles and left myself the option to tack on the 3 mile up tempo section at the end, getting in 12 miles rather than 9. Though my legs were heavy from a strength routine I did earlier in the day and I was very hungry for dinner (and tired!), I did it. I told Coach Hadley that it is a rare occasion when I convince myself to do a workout after deciding to run easy. 

DOMS from the strength training hit my legs and butt like a train wreck on Saturday and I felt it pretty much the entire long run today too. I ran 19 miles today with 6 x 1 mile repeats. These are goal marathon paced repeats, but I don't really have a goal marathon pace at this point. I'm just running them how I feel, which means at about marathon effort. What's interesting is that I am settling in on 6:17 pace. The last 3-4 marathon pace runs I've done have averaged very close to this pace, and not by design. I had really believed I would be in 2:50 shape for Tacoma, but I don't want to limit myself. To win the race, I think I need to be ready for anything from 2:46-2:50, so I'll just keep trying to get into the best marathon shape I can.

I didn't get in as much supplemental work as I'd like this week, but I am feeling really good right now. I'm trying to be more cognizant of balance in my training than a slave to prescription. It's easy for me to fall victim to the numbers game and forget to listen to my body. I am trying hard to listen. 

Finally, I am also excited about the fact that I am running about 4-5 lbs heavier than my normal racing weight right now. Why is that exciting? Because I know that I will lose the weight over the next 2 months--that's just how my body responds in the last 2 months of marathon training. I will become faster just by sloughing off those few extra pounds! Some people prefer to stay close to racing weight year round, but I like to let myself gain and then slowly lose as I get closer to my goal race. I like the feeling of "leaning" up and how workouts start to feel easier as I get closer to my goal weight and race.