Two Out Of Three

This week has been a bit up and down.  I've gotten two of the three 5-mile runs in that I had planned and that's how it's going to stay now, until the big 20 miler on Sunday.  I ended up running on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  I had planned a longer run for Wednesday, but ended up keeping it shorter and trying to follow the plan.

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed recently, partly with the marathon, and I think I'm more ready than ever to get out there and do the race.   I've already promised myself that once it's over, I'm going to take some time off from all of this endurance sports business.  I think I just need to re-group and figure out what's next.  I actually decided not to sign up for the NYC Triathlon for 2011.  I figure there are a lot of other races out there that I'd like to do and I'll give those a shot first.

Wednesday my run was pretty simple.  Run north in Central Park to the Harlem Hill and then run home.  I was thinking originally that I'd do some hill repeats, but then I realized that the plan only had me running 5 miles instead of 8 for a reason and I should stick with that.  Of course, now that it's Friday and I didn't run today, I'm a little upset I didn't just do the 8, but I'll take it and be happy with it.

Both Wednesday and Thursday were nice and warm here in New York (in the 70s).  And it's really weird to be wearing shorts and a tank top while running at the end of October, but I'm not going to complain.  Wednesday was especially humid, which I sort-of forgot how it feels to run in such humidity.  I am, however, a bit grateful that the weather will cool off for my long run over the weekend.  I'm now terribly nervous that the day of the Philly marathon will be the coldest one we've had yet, but that will probably only help with running! 

Thursday I ended up running in the evening because I needed to run to NYRR to pick up my race number and D-Tag for Sunday's 5-mile race in the Park.  It's really a marathon kick-off race for the NYC marathon, but I figure I can use it as my marathon kick-off race too!  I always thought that it would be a good idea to do one more race before the marathon, so this works out well.

I knew that I didn't have the best run ever on Wednesday, so yesterday I decided not to time myself.  All I know is that it took 59 minutes to run from our apartment to NYRR, pick up my race number, and run home.  I don't really know how much time was spent at NYRR or at stop lights, so I'm just guessing on the time below.  It was actually sort-of nice to not be checking my watch all the time and feel slow! 

I'm really nervous about this weekend's last long run.  I've got the first 15 miles all mapped out and then I'll do the race as the last 5 miles.  Of course, that means I have to get up ridiculously early in order to run 15 miles before the race starts at 8:30, but it also means that I'll be done running 20 miles and home by 10 am!  Not too shabby for a morning's work! 

Running - Wednesday
Time: 1:03:15
Distance: 5.60 miles
Pace: 11:15/mile

Running - Thursday
Time: ~52:00
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 10:24/mile