Fall Back Week

This week was my first "fall back week" of this training schedule.   Oh, how I love these weeks.   I love how they refresh you, and I love how, by the end of the training cycle, you find yourself saying things like: "Oh, this week is an easy week.   My long run is only 14 miles."   This week though, my long run was only 8 miles and it was a great run.   I forgot to pause my gps when I dropped Susannah off after mile one, so the entire run my splits were wacky because they were averaging with a 14 minute first mile.   I almost reset my gps so I could have an accurate pace reading, but then I decided I would just go by feel and run what felt comfortable and easy.   If I felt myself picking it up too much, I would try to pull back.   I love training with these strict pace guidelines because I'm finding that most of the time, I'm having to concentrate much more often to slow down than speed up.  So, I often catch myself thinking about how this plan seems easier and less intense. I'm counting on the mental and emotional benefits of this kind of training to carry me straight to the PR I'm looking for in June.   I finished the run feeling great and excited to look up my splits on the computer.   Unfortunately, I instead had to get in the car and drive back over our last mile route so that I could find Susannah's sock and shoe that she threw out of the stroller.    (The sock and the shoe were at least .5 miles apart and the sock was thrown out first, which I find so odd.)  

This morning though, when I finally checked the splits, I was happy to see these:

Mile 1: 14:06
Mile 2: 8:59
Mile 3: 9:17
Mile 4: 9:14
Mile 5: 9:16
Mile 6: 9:24
Mile 7: 9:24
Mile 8: 9:20

  So happy to see that even in the wind, this is my easy pace.   I have that wonderful feeling of being right where I am supposed to be for this moment of the training program.  

On Tuesday, I ran a 4.5 mile pace run.  It was supposed to be 6, but we got a late start and I needed to do two errands before lunch/naptime, so we had to cut it short.   My marathon pace is 8:31.   I have decided to let the first mile of pace runs be a warm up though because I think it sets the wrong mental tone for me to bolt out of the door.   I was pretty pleased with these splits too.....
Mile 1: 9:03
Mile 2: 8:24
Mile 3: 8:16
Mile 4: 8:45

I think the slower mile 4 was due to a redlight and my decision making moments when I was deciding whether to turn off my original intended route to make sure I got the errands in.    So, in sum, my last two runs have been really encouraging and I'm feeling hopeful about the goal I have set for myself.   Tomorrow I'm going to do my first set of hill repeats.   I'm pretty sure they will be interesting when I factor in the stroller.   By interesting I mean butt-kicking.   ;)