Tonight I ponder both where the training time has went and how the remainder of training time will be coming prior to race day in January. The Houston Marathon Kick-Off Party came and went a couple of weeks ago and we're at the point of the year where the long runs will be served mostly in increasing helping sizes.
I feel like I'm ahead of the curve as I stretched out for 16 miles this past weekend. Yes, I was very exhausted by the end, but I was pleased to see that the body recovery was a snap, compared to previous long runs where I'd be working out soreness for more than a couple of days. It was a humid morning, but partly cloudy with temps that stayed under 80F through mid-morning. I was breaking in a new hydration belt -- the Nathan Speed 2 -- and it felt really good to have that pair of 10-ounce bottles around my center-of-gravity instead of 20 ounces sloshing around together as usual in my handheld Amphipod.
Fueling this season's PR distance on Saturday were Black Cherry Clif Shot Blocks, Blueberry-Pomegranate GU Chomps, and a MP3 playlist with nothing but albums from the band Cake. Cake gave a great show for their Houston fans recently as headliners of BestFest in Midtown. One thing I hadn't noticed until that night is that their songs don't vary too widely in tempo. So a nothing-but-Cake soundtrack was actually useful in keeping up a decent running rhythm.
Endurance is building, but I'm still concerned about speed. If Marathon Sunday was tomorrow, I wouldn't be ready for the 13:45/mile pace needed to finish in the 6-hour limit. I'm hoping speed will come around with cooler weather and more training time. Meanwhile, this week I'm dialing back the distance this weekend for at least one short race, so here's a toast to finding some Octoberfast in my glass!
No comments:
Post a Comment