Marathon Redemption - Week 7

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.

Hallelujah, grace like rain
falls down on me.
Hallelujah, all my stains
are washed away, are washed away.

Tood Agnew, "Grace Like Rain"

I really can't imagine having a better birthday week than this. And yes, I do believe that my birthday requires an entire week of celebration - one day is just not enough. I kicked off my birthday celebrations on Thursday with a 6 mile tempo run -- all the better to be able to eat cake and not feel too guilty afterward. My streak of good running seems to be alive and well, becuase I was able to crank out my 4 tempo miles at a 9min/mile pace. If only I had a race to run right now, I could be setting all sorts of PRs.

When I got to work on Thursday, I realized that Dork and Worm, two of my very favorite people in the whole world, posted little birthday blogs for me. I don't know what I'd do without these two girls - they make my life brighter every single day. Who else in the world would turn me into a running burrito for my birthday?? The day only got better, because my parents drove down to have dinner with me and the hubs. We tried a new restaurant, Lucianos, in Mulvane, and it didn't disappoint. It's a bit of a haul from our house, but the food was delicious - I have no idea what the name of the entree that I ordered was, but a filet in mushroom cream sauce can't be a bad thing. We capped off dinner with a cake that my mom had made for me -- of all the desserts in the world, not much can top the cake she makes. It's better than just about anything, and even though I've made it myself several times, it's just never quite as good as when my mom makes it.

So along with the cake, I scored a new pair of pink recovery socks thanks to mom and dad, that I put to good use after my 20 mile run on Sunday. And thanks to the hubs, I have a brand new shiny silver bag that I'm absolutely in love with. Not a bad birthday at all. But of course, one night wasn't enough so the celebration continued the next night when we had a few good friends over to our house to celebrate. It's a good thing that I run, because I sure did overindulge in some wine, pizza, and other delicious goodies that night.

Which brings me around to the next day - the day of the first 20 miler of this training program. And of course, we couldn't have had good weather - that would have been too easy. It was rainy, drizzly, and just plain cold all morning long. But I knew I had to get the run over with and knew the rest of the weekend wasn't likely to be any better. So off I went, and told myself that if I could manage to do 10 miles outside, I could finish inside if I was completely miserable. My new mantra for long runs is to stay relaxed - so on Saturday, that's what I focused on. I used the run as a sort of moving meditation, constantly reminding myself to let go of any tension and just enjoy the movement. It seemed to work on this weekend, because despite the cold and wet conditions, I was having a fantastic run up until mile 15. After mile 15, the rain picked up and the wind picked up at the same time, and I just got cold and couldn't ever quite warm up. The heaviness that always comes with extremely cold weather started to creep into my legs around mile 17, where I finally gave up and took a couple of walk breaks. At mile 18, though, I knew I only had 2 miles left before I could get inside and warm up, so I went for it...the last 2 miles actually went extremely well, and I had enough left in me to run the last mile at race pace. I was pleasantly surprised that unlike my 18 mile run, my hips didn't get stiff and tired this time. My legs felt so good (relatively speaking) after I finished the 20 that I didn't even bother with an ice bath.

I seem to be recovering fairly well today, which gives me a lot of hope for this marathon. Before OKC last year, I only did one 20 mile run and none of my runs over 16 miles had gone well at all. Not to mention that the last time I ran 20 miles, I was fairly certain that I wanted to die afterward. I was expecting the same feeling yesterday, but it never came...I even remarked to Matt last night that I was surprised at how good I felt. I don't know how much the recovery socks have to do with this, but I'm in love with these things -- I want to wear a pair of them every single day.

Week 7 stacked up like this:

Run 1 - 2 miles easy
Run 2 - 6 miles; 4 at 9:00 pace
Run 3 (bonus ) - 2 miles easy
Run 4 - 20 miles

Next week is a rest week - yay! 7 miles three times. And hopefully by the time my next long run rolls around, the weather will warm up a little bit.