Back in the saddle?

Tonight I ran on the treadmill-yuck!  But there was no way I was going to run outside in 108-degree weather either.  My body clock was off after two days of downtime at the Biltmore Resort.  We had a great time.  I got a hot stone massage (which I HIGHLY recommend) and read an entire book (The Kite Runner) by the pool (I'm a fast reader).  And, of course I got a lot of great quality time with my hubby.

Anyway, back to reality.  The run was fine, if not a bit boring.  The only thing that sucks is that I have to do a hill workout in less than 10 hours!

Whew!  The weather channel said it was 88 degrees when I headed out, but it felt a little cooler.  If not, that's good, because it means I was getting used to the heat.  I did some dynamic stretching before the run, which got my heart rate up pretty quickly. 

The goal was 5.5 miles with 6 fartleks of 75 seconds each at 7:57 pace.  It was hard to gauge my pace on the fartlek portions, but I think each one was .15-.17 miles.  I know the last one was .17 miles, which works out to 7:21 pace, so it looks like I went too fast on the fast portions (or maybe I'm in better shape than I thought-ha!).  My average pace for the whole run was 9:42.

It was 68 degrees and windy when I headed out!  I am SOOO sore from yesterday.  I'm not sure if it's from the dynamic stretching, which included lunges, or the fartlek intervals.  So my pace was pretty slow: a 9:57 average.  I'm sick of being slow!

This was a fun race.  I hung out with Lybi and James and enjoyed the view of the backs of their heads during the race!  It was around 60 degrees, extremely rare for Phoenix at this time of the year.  It was an out and back course on the canal, so it was pretty narrow.  The race featured a staggered start that got pretty mixed up.  My handicap was supposed to be 12:15, and it ended up being more like 15:00.  I started with the fast, young guys.  Oops!  It was a little uphill for the first quarter or so, and then obviously downhill at the end, which helped.  With such a narrow course, there were people all over the place who didn't have a clue about running etiquette, and it was frustrating having to weave in and out of people for the ENTIRE race.  But, I couldn't have asked for better weather.  The t-shirt was cool too, and the entry fee was cheap.

My only goal in this race was to break 26:00.  I really just wanted to gauge my fitness.  I was VERY sore until last night and was still pretty sore this morning, so I was concerned that I wouldn't do as well as I wanted to.  I did a 1.8 mile warmup (my longest warmup ever) and dynamic stretches, and I think they helped.  I started the race feeling nice and loose.

The first mile was 8:14, slower than I had wanted to run.  Part of it was probably the crowds, and the other part was just the way I race.  I saw Lybi near the turn-around part, and she was in the zone!  There was a water stop (with ice water!) at the turnaround point, so I lost a few seconds there.  Second mile was 7:59, and that's when I really started passing people, which I LOVED!  Mile 3 was 7:56, and the last .1 was 6:51.  I almost ran several people over, which I kind of feel bad about, but come on people!  Take off your iPods and run on the right side of the path!  I almost mowed a lady down near the very end-oops!

My performance today was about 90 seconds better than my 5K time at the beginning of my last marathon training cycle.  This time puts me on track for a sub-4 hour marathon, which I am confident will improve as my training continues.  Woo-hoo!

I did a 2-mile cooldown when I got home.