NYC Marathon Training Week #9: Tuesday Speed

Tuesday~

I woke up at 4:45 am this morning.  In the middle of the night I was a little wound up waiting for the alarm to go off after trying desperately to find my sleep. On top of being a light sleeper, I was a little excited: I have a date with the running divas in the morning. The fast ladies are back on schedule so our Tuesdays and Thursday morning runs are on again. I’m so delighted because now I have a purpose in getting back into the habit waking up and getting my run out of the way. I love it when it's done and I don’t have to keep thinking about it the rest of the day.

One nice thing about running with a group, is that you are committed. You can’t just bow out. People are waiting for you. Once I make a decision that I am going, that’s it. It’s hard to break it. I would have to have a good reason not to show up like if I am really sore or if the kid is sick.

It was pitch black at 5:30 in the morning. I couldn’t find my headlamp so I dashed out hoping the other girls have theirs. Luckily they have theirs. In the middle of the run, I got a little worried. These girls are fast, if I fall off pace, I have no light! So I had to work hard with sticking with them. Just how fast are they? Let’s just say, they're the top finishers of any local races they enter. Aeron is a miler who just got back from the USATF Championship in Oregon in June for the Master’s 3K, Jill is a 2:34 marathoner and Jennifer, she's Coach Joe Rubio’s better half, and lightning fast. All three gals are gnarly fast. What a great opportunity it is to be able to run with them! They're so fast that their mellow run is my 5K pace. Yes, I rolled out of bed today to run a 5K. Three miles was the extent to which I was able to hang on to their pace. I was trying to wait until there was more light before separating from them, but I also didn't want to do too much. It My goal is to be able to stay with them longer each day, little by little, as time progresses. There went my mid-week long run; I guess today was speed work.

The plan was to run 9 miles. For the rest of the run, after the running divas dropped me, my plan was to run easy. That didn't quite materialized. I was still gleaming in excitement over running fast that I just ran according to to how the legs want to go. I ended up running a 9:19 pace for the 9 miles at 85% of my max HR. It was a great workout. I just hope I didn't do any harm for my 6-Yasso workout tomorrow night. I took a little bit of risk running fast today. However, I am willing to take the consequences. That means I can't get mad at myself, if my performance dips come tomorrow night. I knew going in, that if I run with the Divas today that meant a long slow run would not be possible. I must say that taking it nice and slow on Sunday, gave me more energy to be able to run comparatively stronger today. There is definitely something about slowing down the pace on a long run which makes you better able to handle more challenging workouts for the rest of the week.

I will let you know how I do on my Yassos tomorrow night. Until then, happy running!