Well I didn't think it would take this long but todays run was the first time this year I had to wear spikes. When I got up, it was already 2C, so I look outside and the pavement looks wet but not icy. So I lace up the road gloves and head out at around 8pm. I didn't get 500m before one leg decided to head in the wrong direction, crap!!! I didn't fall but it was close so I decided to turn around and head home for a tire change. So i walked home (wasn't going to try running again) and put on my Kinveras that already had the spikes on and ready to go. I headed back out with no issues this time except of the noise that the spikes make.
My paces are continuing to get faster as I continue to set PB times during my practice runs, which I know means absolutely nothing unless its during a race but it feels good to know that the conditioning is paying off. my best run this week was Wednesday's 13k run, which i did in 1:09:07, a full 7 minutes faster than I've run 13k before. It was just one of those runs that everything just "clicked" and felt perfect.
Tomorrow i have a 21k long run. I'm planning on going with the Merrell Road Gloves instead of my "conventional shoes". When I finish, this will be my longest run in minimalist shoes yet. A time of under 2 hrs will be great to. the forecast calls to be warm in the morning so I may even get to wear shorts, which would be awesome for December. Usually i'm stuck with the longer sweatpants this time of year. Fingers crossed that the morning is warm. Still no snow! YA!
A couple of weeks ago someone told me that they thought I looked "sick" and that I should stop losing more weight. I thought of that as kinda odd until I gave it a little thought. Here's the thing, I haven't lost any weight since 2011. I've maintained a running weight of 155-160 but I am smaller now than 2011. I smile when I think of the reason. I've leaned out and have become stronger. I'm actually looking like a long distance runner now.
This weeks total distance will be 51k. A "recovery" week. lol It only gets worse after this one with weekly distances of 64, 67 and 66k before another "recovery" week. If this is what i'm going through for the Hypo Half in February, I shudder to think what my coach is going to have me doing in March and April. I have a feeling I'm going to see an 80k week or two in there somewhere.
On December 1st, I signed up for the 2013 Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY. Why that one? Well I've been doing some homework and that seems to be one of the fastest fall marathons in the Northeast. The whole thing is at a slight downhill grade which = fast. I need to run it faster than 3:25 to qualify for Boston in 2014. I'll put it out of my mind for now as i have a Hypo Half, a Lung Run, the Fredericton marathon, Navy 10k and gawd knows what else to do before next October comes around. It will be nice to run with 2500 other marathoners at the Wineglass though. I'm only used to running with 100-300 other crazy bastards so the extra people running will mean more people to catch and pass!! lol
Well its getting late and I have an early run tomorrow. onward and upward!
