Running Thoughts: 11 Miles

Our recent running schedule:

April 11 - 16 miles

April 18 - 10 miles (I missed this run because we were camping.)

April 25 - 18 miles (train run)

May 2 - 11 miles (back down) 

May 9 - 20 miles (longest run for our training) (next week, yikes!)

May 16 - 11 miles (back down)

May 23 - 8 miles

May 31 - 26.2 miles - San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon!!!

It's hard to imagine that in less than one month I'll be running (and hopefully completing) my first marathon!  

So last Saturday we only ran 11 miles.  Back down week.   Still can't believe I just typed only.

It was a trail run along the San Elijo Lagoon, which means it was technical.  Building up those stabilizer muscles in the sand, on boulders, uneven trails, etc.  

Also building up my "ducking" muscles with a few random low-hanging tree brances.  Except I didn't duck low enough for one of them.  Clocked my head on a 6" diameter limb that didn't budge.  Still feeling it.  Yeah.  That was no fun.  

Alisa and I did our standard 5/1 intervals but I was tired.  At this point, the marathon is mental.  I felt better after our 18 mile run than I did this run mostly because I was mentally pumped up for it.  It was only 11 miles so I wasn't as worried, but then didn't perform as well.  Alisa's doing so great.  I'm probably holding her back, but she's got a great attitude and I love running with her.  At track workouts, she runs with the faster group while I plug along in the back of the pack.  

I'm sooo grateful for my TEAM in Training group!  Such a wonderful experience for me.  No way I could do this alone.

Alisa and I talked about finish times last week, and how it would be nice to finish our marathon in under 5 hours.  When we first started running together, the focus was on:

1.  just finishing the marathon and 
2. being happy.
   

Now we're talking about running semi-fast.  Whoa.

Seek the Lord and his strength;

seek his presence continually!

—Psalm 105:4    

We'll see how the whole "run fast" thing plays out.  Stay tuned...

After our run we had a picnic which honored friends who have battled blood cancer.  Family members were there and it was a wonderful time.  Chris, my fellow TEAM member, is such a great guy and a real trooper.  He used to run slower than me but since he is 20 pounds lighter than he used to be, he runs ahead of me now... wow!  He's keeping a blog on his training and weight loss - way to go Chris!  

Chris and me.

The Sacker and Garland families as we explore the pond.  There were turtles sunning themselves on the middle island along with ducks and a few ducklings.

 The Sacker's yellow lab Caleb was a hit with the kids.  Here he is munching on some ice.