New Goal

So I've decided to hold off on increasing the distance of my long run for a little while. I want to focus on training for the Arizona Distance Classic on March 27th. My plan is train hard for the next 10 weeks and...

Run a sub-2 hour half marathon! It'll be tough but I feel so confident that I can do it if I follow my training plan!

And I want an accurate and recent race time to use before I begin official marathon training.

So 1:59:59 is going to be all I see for the next 10 weeks! I'm very excited. Even if I don't make it, it's so nice to have a concrete goal to think about during training. I have the plan (courtesy of Runner's World SmartCoach) printed out and posted to my white board.
See? (Yes, I reward myself with weird looking smiley faces for working out... No, I'm not a part-time kindergarten teacher...)

The 1st week of the plan looks like this:

• Sunday- Weight training and 3 miles with 5X60 seconds@7:30 min/mile
  
• Monday- Cross training of some sort
• Tuesday- 6 mile Speed Work:3X1600's @8:40
• Wednesday- 4 easy miles/ weight training
  
• Thursday- Rest
• Friday- 13 miles
  
• Saturday- 3 miles

Wish me luck!

Running in 2011

So I finally grew a pair and registered for a marathon! It's the Portland Marathon and it is not until October 9th.

I've spent the last 12 weeks training for a half marathon that I didn't end up running but I have definitely noticed the difference in my running. I ran 13.1 miles on Friday for my weekly Long Slow Distance run and it was... wonderful! And averaged just under 10min/mile!

This picture was taken about an hour after my run at lunch with my mom, sister, brother and daughter.

I look so happy! Definitely not usual following a long run.

I've been averaging 3.5 days/week running and 2 days/week strength training
I'm going to try and get a solid 4 days running weekly this year. I'm perfectly happy with my strength training for now.

This upcoming week I'm going to have a kick back week with all shorter, easy-ish runs. The following week I will be back at training hoping to reach a distance of 20 miles for my long run sometime in April. I've been taking it nice and easy as far as progression of the distance of my long runs and that has been working wonderfully.

Something else I'd like to work on this year: reducing meat consumption. I already eat very little meat but I'd like to get it down to about 1 time per week by the end of the year. I eat tons of beans, eggs and use protein powder a lot so I'm pretty sure I can do this successfully without feeling any ill effects.

Time to go eat some spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce and Frank's red hot... Mmm