Training's Done

I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this.

I've been busy as hell, but the good news is that I've been running. A lot. Jeremy and I have been running together which has been good for making me go out and do longer runs. Instead of being lazy and sticking to my 3-4.5 miles around campus, I have been getting my butt out of bed a couple times a week at 5:30am to drive to the Coral Gables Country Club to run around the golf course (5.6). It always seems like a horrid idea when I'm in bed, but once I'm up running around the course with J, talking about our day ahead, and watching the sun rise above the banyan trees and the fog settle on the golf course, it seems like the best place in the whole world. It's been a great way to start the day. Of course the days we sleep in is nice too.

Running more with Jeremy has been great for both of us, but especially me because it pushes me to run a bit faster. He never makes me, as a matter of fact, he is always encouraging me to slow myself to a comfortable pace. But running with him makes me want to push myself harder, and I love it. Not only have my 5.6 mile runs progressively gotten faster, but I have run my fastest 3.2 mile loops after running with him. Here's a look at my runs since I last updated.

1/4 - Elliptical 45 minutes, stretch
1/6 - 13 miles - 2:40:12 Good run, felt great until walk breaks around mile 11. Hurt to start running again.
1/7 - weights
1/8 - 5.6 miles - 56:41
1/10 - 5.6 miles - 55:05
1/13 - 10 miles - 1:50:05 - Good pace, ran closer to race pace.
1/15 - 5.6 miles - 53:40 - PR for course
1/17 - 3.2 miles - 29:02 - PR for course
1/22 - 5.6 miles - 56:53 - Slow taper run
1/24 - 2.94 miles - 27:36 - Slow taper run

I am feeling a bit anxious since I haven't run too much in the past two weeks. I missed the long run last weekend due to Mercy's bachelorette party. I know I am tapering, but it still makes me nervous for how things will go on Sunday. I just feel like it's been so song since I did a long run. Now I know what people are talking about when they say the taper makes them nutty. I thought they were crazy before, but now I see their point.

So now it's just chill time till gameday. Basically trying to eat well, sleep well and drink a lot of water. I think my plan for the big day is to run with the training group, specifically Leslie and Tracy and take walk breaks up to ten, then depending on how good my pace is, how my knees feel and how tired I am, I will just run the rest of the way in. I can do 3 miles without stops and the last time I did the 13 mile run, after mile 10 the walk breaks hurt more than they did good. While I was running I felt great, but then I would stop and starting up again was killing me. Anyway, I guess we'll just see how it goes Sunday.

Oh yeah, I have my miles logged since I started my training. Since 9/30/06 I have logged 244.35 miles. Not too shabby.