Sunday, September 18, 2011

Bib Numbers and Better Long Run

Bib Numbers and Start Times came out this week- making the marathon seem more like a reality. I am #19259, which puts me in Wave 1, Corral 19, Green. What this means is that J and I will start at different times, and I am on the bottom of the Varrazanos Bridge.

The separate start times gave me much pause, as although J and I were going for slightly different times (5 minutes), I had envisioned us starting together. After some thought and advice, I decided to take my earlier start time. It is a bit selfish of me, as I will have a shorter wait time on Staten Island, and 9,000 fewer runners in front of me, but I think it gives both of us the best chance to truly run our own races without worrying about the other person. I don't want to hold her back, and I also know that running the first 8 or so miles even 5-10 seconds faster than MP can hurt in the last miles.

Other than that, being in Green means a lower level start, and less-scenic route the first 4 or so miles, but oh well. That is the trade-off.

Training went much better this week. I forgot to add last week that I started back to swimming, only 1 day a week, and not pushing my paces. I made a promise to myself to keep it between 2500-3000 yards, and am going to try and stay around 2700-2800 for a workout.

Here are the runs for the week:
M: 11M @ 9:29 pace on the trail. Nice day, nice run.
T: swam 2700 yards. Recovery with TK. 5M @ 9:58 pace
W: was a cluster. Had to sit through PTA meeting, so workout was broke up. 2M @ 9:30, 5M tempo at 7:57 on TM, then at 8 pm that night, 2M @ 9:45. got it done!
F: MUCH BETTER LONG RUN-- kept pace 9:35 or so, then let J go the last 3 miles. My mile 17 was 8:20. 18M, 9:33 ave. pace. got the confidence back a bit
S: 5M recovery on trail 10:10 pace

48 miles for the week on 5 days. Next week is cut-back in terms of LR, but not mileage.

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