T-minus Two Weeks

It's on. I just ran 6 miles at goal place, took full recovery, and ran 6 miles back at 10 seconds faster than goal pace. Friends told me this was a good test workout to see if you're read for for a marathon. Over the last two months I've been doing consistent weekend long runs of 17-22 miles, slowly getting faster, bringing it down from 7:22 pace to 7:04 pace, and today an average of 6:41. So, I'm feeling pretty good about beating 3 hours at the Shamrock Marathon in two weeks, even though I'm definitely worked after today's run.


I've tried to do one real speed workout every week, but I haven't had the wherewithal to get up early enough and go across town to my friends' before-work hardcore workout group, so "workouts" for me usually just mean throwing in a couple fast miles. I've kept up the streak running, meaning I've run 2+ miles every day of the year so far. I ran 269 miles in February, which is my highest mileage February, though just barely. I ran the Hashawa Hills 50K last weekend, and was really hoping to go under 5:30, maybe even close to 5:00, but I never really felt like I could get a rhythm going--there were no miles without hills, so I never had a stretch where I could make up time. (I definitely haven't done much in the way of hills lately.) Serious mud and a little ice didn't help either. Regardless, it was a fun day, carpooling with a friend and only a $19 entry fee.



I also thought it might help speed-wise to lose a couple pounds. So I went dry for the month of February, and also cut out added sugar. Beer was hard the first week, easy after that. Added sugar wasn't difficult, since I don't have a sweet tooth and basically only eat vegetables anyway. I made some mistakes (stupid things like soy sauce, rice vinegar, and coconut water that shouldn't have, and totally don't need, added sugar, but some cheap ones do) but otherwise it went well. I don't think I really missed not being able to eat anything in particular. Did I lose any weight? I don't know, maybe two pounds, maybe nothing. I think I definitely have since the holidays, but it fluctuates so much it's hard to say more than that. Did I get any faster? I guess we'll see.

It snows in DC.
National Cathedral

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