Revisiting the Hills- 13 towards Newton:

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the gradual increase of daylight! We had another go at the hills this week, this time from Wellesley up past Heartbreak and over. One thing is for sure- I am getting to know this part of the course very well!

The dedications at practice were wrenching. Emily, our campaign manager, showed up for practice although her grandmother had just passed away. Another member went through her story of how 4 out of 8 family members had been diagnosed with cancer, some of them fatally. Another member told of how a family member was so ill that the doctors did not know what to do next.

We worked well to develop a strategy for this run. 13 miles is a good distance to test your realistic goals for the marathon- it is almost a half marathon distance, and gauging your speed can make you see whether you are in the game to make your goal time for race day. There is an interesting running calculator listed on Greg McMillan's website- check it out with your own times to see where you get- it is supposed to give you a predictor for your race distance. We decided to take the first two miles very slow and then gradually increase to our pace.

Unfortunately, we did not meet our goals when we punched the numbers in McMillan's. Technically speaking, we were ahead for even pacing on a sub-4 marathon (according to our race-pace bracelet), but the tricky thing with marathoning is that you can't count on a negative split or a rock steady pace the second half of the race. On the other hand, we had winds of 20 mph in our face on the way back, AND ran over the hills of Newton, including Heartbreak twice, so we have to take this with a grain of salt. My hat was frozen on my head on the way back- that was a WIND!

Lesson of the day: Keep testing yourself to see how you are doing against your goals. Give yourself flexibility for an off day, but reassess your goals and see whether the training should change or your goals should modify.

I have never felt so tired after a run- including last year's marathon. I found I could not move and spent the rest of the day asleep. Well, time to regroup after catching up w/home chores Sunday, work on the weekday runs and get ready for next Saturday's 15. What are my goals for the week? Try to push in a few speed segments into the weekday run, and don't forget to think about pacing!
And yes, I still am enjoying this and know I am LUCKY to be out here. -M