Marathon Training Week 3

On this father's Day I ran week 3 of my marathon training with my Cornbelt peeps for a distance of 12 miles. I have run this distance countless times so it was just another run for me. The only thing I was nervous about was not getting lost like I did last week. I studied the map so I was prepared except the coaches changed up the route and we ran west instead of east. Doh!!!! They were so awesome though and had a map of the training course. THANK YOU, coaches! You rock! I studied that map and felt pretty sure I would not lose my way. I did not.

This week I did my best to keep up with everyone and it was fine for a mile or two or three. At that point, I was feeling winded and knew that I was running way too fast for MY training pace. I toodled along the best I could and finally found a fellow runner in the group that was running slower. I hooked up with her and I was still running too fast. Dang it! I need my running partner badly!!!! Oh Emily!!!!!!!!!!!! I did have a great visit with today's running partner however so that made the miles tick away faster.

At one of the water stops I was chatting with a group of fellow training gals and evidently they came early and cranked out some miles before the actual run started. The lightbulb went off in my head as I was saying duh to myself. I did this a few years back when I trained with the Geneseo group since that was a MUCH smaller group and I truly was the slowest. I will decide this week where I will start that run and I may just do it in our neighborhood before heading to the group run.

Back to today's run, I broke away from my running partner today towards the end to finish out my 12 miles and finally found my pace. I finished up and there were a few runners left at the picnic shelter including the coaches. I gobbled up what grapes were left and downed some more water. It was a relief to be done.

The coaches brought a scale which provided us as a tool to make sure we took in enough water during the run. I weighed before and after and found that I am actually hitting it about right. I know that I am a very smart runner with my hydration and this was proof. Yay me!

This week I have three strength training sessions plus two 40-ish minute runs. I actually have a 5k next Saturday and will use that as one of the runs with the 13 mile long run the next day. It's doable. My other running day will be Wednesday with me and hubby's planned running date after work. One day this week will be a complete rest day.

Today's stats (way too fast):

12 miles
2:31:47
12:35 av pace
1104 cals torched
splits: 11:56, 12:04, 12:44, 12:10, 11:53, 13:35, 12:4, 12:03, 12:35, 12:26, 13:10, 13:37

My splits are just all over the place and I felt it so I will definitely start early so I don't feel rushed trying to keep up. That should work wonderfully. Heck, I don't sleep all that great anyway so i might as well just get up and run.

That's it for now and to all the dads out there including my awesome Dad...Happy Father's Day!!!

Toodles!