My love, I am the speed of sound

While my sleep is getting a bit better, I'm not (or I should say the dog) quiet making it through the night. We're close. Even with this, my work outs have been going very well. I expect to fall a cliff of exhaustion sometime soon. Perhaps I had a little bit of that today.

Earlier in the week, I headed out to the track, OUTSIDE!!! To do 5x1000 as part of a longer 9 mile run. I am so glad to be back on the outdoor track. This was the first year I ran at the Armory. My opinion of the experience...eh. I only ran with my team once of twice. 8pm is far too late for me to start an intense work out. I'd come home and not be able to get to sleep til 1 am. I have enough trouble in that dept. Also, my body can't handle running on a tiny banked 200m track more than once a week so I really dont think it was worth laying the money down for. Oh well, I don't mind doing speed work on my own so I was usually going early and leaving as the team was warming up. I'm not saying I wont do it next year, I might just go with a pay as you go option. 

Back to the workout. I warmed up for about 3.5 miles then got down to it. Loren had been gone most of the week so I was on solo doggie duty and much sleep was lost. Funny though, once I get moving, I dont notice I'm tired. I just run. 

After my 15k, I plugged my new number into McMillan and decided to use those paces for my workout. Mac gives the 1000 range of 4:25-4:35. Always just used as a guideline. My times went something like this:

4:19, 4:27, 4:24, 4;25, 4:19

I was tired when I finished but I could have done another one at that pace and didn't feel like puking so I think that's a successful workout.

On my last one, a group of 7-8 year olds were doing some afterschool program at the track. After several jumping jacks, the teacher told the kids to take a lap. I was swarmed by a mob of small people. They were hysterical, going all out from the get go. By 100m, almost all of them were walking. There is zero track etiquette at this track which is both frustrating and totally entertaining.

Due to weekend plans, I shuffled my work outs again this week. Today I did 17 miles with 14 miles at marathon pace. Some of you loyal readers may remember when I did this work out last time. For those who need a refresher, let me paint a picture for you: it's hot, it's humid, and ate nothing but a waffle for breakfast, I ended up crying on 125th st telling Loren I wanted to finish alone. In other words, I bonked. Big time. I wasn't afraid of that happening again this time but ya know, the memory was there. I did a MP run a few weeks ago and set my pace at 8:29. That was based on my 10 mile race time I believe. Right now, Mac give me a projected marathon time of 3:40:16, which is a 8:25 pace. I am not going to try and run that at NJ. I'm sticking with getting under 3:45. That is my priority goal. If I hit that, I can go all out on my next race. I did, however, keep my pace at 8:29. I love the garmin workout buddy. It's so cool to see this little animated person that's you running against another one who is going the pace you set. I did a 3 mile warm up in Central Park. The first part of my MP ran was in the park then I moved to the path along the Hudson. A totally beautiful day today with temps getting up towards 60. A little warmer than it's been so I wore a fuel belt. Man, I can't wait until the fountains are on! Heading up towards the GWB, there was a head wind. Mild, but still noticeable. About 10 miles into the MP part of the run, I started getting a bit tired. Nothing horrible, but my legs were getting heavy. I was already 2 gels in and one bottle down. I was able to muscle my way through the last 4 miles, finishing with an average pace of 8:28. I admit, I love the little beep and "you win" that flashes on my garmin when I finish. I rewarded myself with a Coke. I actually don't really like Coke. It's not something I drink except for after a long run when it is just perfect. Or during an Ironman, but hey, I've also eaten cheesecake during an Ironman.

Skimming though my last few weeks of this cycle, I think most of my heavy workouts are over. I have some more vo2 intervals but I've stopped hating them. I have one more 20 miler which I may do on the course itself in a few weeks. 

It is all coming together! I am very excited about this race.