I made it through another 70 mile week while increasing the quality/speed of my workouts so that was encouraging. My slowest pace this week was my 7:52 ave for my 20miler but the ave pace was sucked down by the HILLS at Hagg Lake.
Steven ran 16 of those miles with me and we were averaging around 7:30 on the flats so that was a good sign. When he peeled off for his car at 17.6 miles into the run (I ran 1.6 before he joined me), I ended up doing donuts on the flat section of the road over the dam to finish out the 20 and was able to keep it right at a 7:15 pace over the last 2.4 miles. He had agreed to hang out for a post-run coffee so I had some incentive to crank it up a bit! The coffee was GREAT since we started our run at 7:30 when the temps were in the 20's- BRRRRRR!!
The day before the 20 miler I ran a hard 7 miler that started off with a 2 mile warmup at 7:05 pace before cranking it up to a 6:33 pace for the remaining 5 miles. Probably not the best protocol for a run the day before going long with Steven but hopefully I didn't hold him up too much. I did notice he was clearly more "conversational" then I was at Hagg (ie easy pace for Steven) and not sure if he was just turning the screws but he seemed to ask me questions right in the middle of our hill climbs while I was trying to suck in oxygen - thanks Steven! ;-)
Today, the legs were feeling the 20 miler the day before but after about 5 minutes, they were back on track and I threw down 10 miles over a rolling, windy course at a 7:40 pace to close out the week.
In other news, I have lost 7-8 lbs since my return from California. Since I put on about 4 lbs over the holidays, my net loss is about 4lbs. I am trying to control all the variables to get everything in order prior to my 2/4 marathon. Weight loss is definitely high o the priority list. I've been pretty strict about my diet in January with green veggie/fruit shakes in the am, healthy snacks during the day, sandwich for lunch, and a bowl of soup for dinner...pretty much grazing lightly all day to get the poundage down and it is working. My goal is to lose another 4-5 pounds but that is going to be a tough call....probably need to turn the screws a bit tighter and not sure if I can do it. Being hungry at night is a tough one. Manorexia- it ain't pretty!
3 more weeks and hopefully I can hit the start line of the marathon ready to crank out a PR. It's all about staying focused a bit longer and building on this momentum. I am on it.
*Peace*
