Pacing myself

I had a great run last night. Typically, I run in the morning. But yesterday when my alarm went off at 4:30, I turned it off and rolled over. I was just too tired. But, I needed to get in 3 miles, so I was forced to run after the girls got into bed.

I've been charting all my runs on coolrunnings.com. Its such a cool program - there is the best graphing feature where you can graph miles, time, pace, etc. I just love charts and graphs, and have gotten a bit obsessed with the whole thing. I've been trying to increase my pace and mileage at the same time, which frankly doesn't work.

So, last night I decided to "change things up at bit". I started out running at a super slow pace. I turned my treadmill display to the one that shows a quarter-mile track. With every lap I completed on the virtual track, I increased the pace just one tenth. I felt really good. It took me almost 40 minutes to complete a 3 mile run. But I could have run longer. And I suppose, to assure that I'm not overtraining, I should always feel like I could go longer at the end of a run.

I'm still feeling intimidated by the marathon, but at least I have a plan. I also signed up for a some races during my training to check my pace. I have a local 5k in June that I plan to run. In July, I signed up for a 10k, and a half-marathon in August. I'm especially excited for the 10k and half, because both routes will be similar to the marathon. Although obviously shorter, they both start high up in the mountains and end up in the valley - which is exactly how the marathon runs. Hopefully I'll be prepared.