9 more weeks

When I wrote my training plan months ago, and revised it a million times, and added volume, and questioned my sanity, I was mildly freaked out over the daunting task of running 800+ miles in 6 months. We are now 9 weeks out from race day and so far, so good.

Last night was our first track night of the season. I have a few track workouts I wrote up for the few weeks prior to race day, but I wanted to let Coach Christine ease us into track so I deferred to her last night, figuring she'll have us start with a few miles of 400s or 800s. Oh heck, no....we started right off the bat with 1600 meter repeats. And she told me I needed to run them in 7:40. With 1 minute rests (although she said it was okay to push to two minutes, and I did).

Well, crap. Last year I couldn't break 8:00 minutes for 1600 repeats (albeit, last year sucked).

Did I mention it was 85 degrees out?

Okay, fine, Coach, let's do this crap....

Because I'm constantly doubting my ability, of course I nailed the damn workout. My 1600s were 7:20, 7:33, and 7:38 (I suppose I was getting a wee bit tired). I honestly couldn't believe when the first one came in at 7:20 because no way did I feel like I was running that fast. It wasn't easy, my heartrate was inching up a lot, and I had to dig, but it was totally doable. I actually got to work out in Zone 5 heartrate for an extended period of time.

Continuing to see the tangible proof that my training is paying off is a huge motivation for me, no matter how much I tend to doubt myself.

Leading up to last night, I've been running pretty well. September had 163 miles, my second biggest volume month ever. My interval and tempo workouts are coming together, with Tuesday's workout producing 3 tempo miles at 8:08 average pace and 7 miles total. I'm up to 18 miles for long runs and can still keep my average heartrate under 140 while running under 10 minute pace average. We've had a return of summer temperatures and high humidity after being teased with some 50s and 60s in early September, so that part has been hard to deal with. I was looking forward to my "easy" pace quickening up more than it has, but I still have to be patient until these temperatures are gone for good.

My half marathon is coming up next weekend. I've gone back and forth on how I want to approach this race. My first thought was to go balls to the wall and really race it, but with further thinking it makes more sense to try to do a race simulation at marathon pace instead. But then I noticed the forecast for that day get worse and worse. It will be in the 70s and high humidity at the start.

Forget that! So a progressive pace training run it will be. I guess. Whatever. I have the worst race day weather luck in the whole freaking world, I swear. It gets incredibly annoying, that's for sure. But I've been running in those temps for months now. I can push the pace a bit and see what happens, but a PR is absolutely out of the question.

The next few weeks will really see some serious commitment. 170 miles in October, 190 in November, and then tapering to December 10 race day. Tempos, long runs, track work, easy days, strength work, balance work....did I mention serious commitment?

This shit is so good for me. It's hard and I love it. I'm scared as hell of failing at my goals, but dammit I'm going to do everything I can to get myself to that starting line in the best shape of my life.

My friend (and badass Ironman) Troy of C4 Endurance recently explained what the 4 Cs of his business name mean: Courage, Commitment, Confidence, and Conviction. It's time for me to print that out and tape it to my bathroom mirror so I can remember that every single day before I hit the streets.

9 more weeks, y'all.

9 more weeks.