Marathon Redemption - Weeks 9 & 10

I'm still standing, better than I ever did.
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid.
I'm still standing, after all this time.
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind.
I'm still standing...yeah, yeah, yeah.

Elton John, "I'm Still Standing"

You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd,
we ain't too pretty, we ain't too proud.
We might be laughin' a bit too loud,
aw but that never hurt no one.

Billy Joel, "Only the Good Die Young"

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Well, two weeks' worth of updating = 2 songs. Lucky you!! And of course, the songs have to be Elton John and Billy Joel because I was lucky enough to see both of them in person on their Face-to-Face tour about a week and a half ago. All I have to say about that is...amazing. I've been to some great concerts in my time, and it's going to be really tough to top this one in the future.

But you don't care to read about the concerts I've been to, you want to read about the running, right?? Well, there's nothing terrible interesting to say about the running, unfortunately. Or maybe that's a good thing, because so long as my posts are uneventful that means I'm not dealing with injuries or really terrible training runs or other training mishaps. I had 16 miles scheduled for week 9 and I was able to do that run with the Fair Weather Runner. Her name was really appropriate that day, becuase that was the nicest running weather we've had in a long time. It's been a long time since I was able to run outside in short sleeves and it was beautiful. And the 16 miles went pretty well, I thought. FWR even kept me so entertained that I didn't have to use my music until the last 2 miles.

I had 20 miles scheduled for this weekend. I did all 20 miles. It wasn't pretty. Somehow I've managed to come up with two terrible weather days the days that I've done my 20 mile runs. Last time it was the cold, drizzle/rain combination that did me in around mile 17 when I could no longer feel my hands. This time it was the 20mph winds straight out of the north that had me ready to quit about 5 miles in. Something about the wind completely kills me, and I don't know what it is. It's not that I'm physically incapable of running in the wind, because I never felt truly bad during my run yesterday. It's more of a mental defeat. I absolutely loathe running in the wind so much that after 10 miles yesterday I was ready to sit down and cry. And I seriously debated just driving to the Y to finish on the indoor track, because I was so flipping sick of being stuck outside in the cold wind on a day that would have been absolutely beautiful running weather otherwise. But I will give myself some credit for this one, I managed to gut it out and finish my run outside, even though it was beyond slow and I never managed to get into a groove. I'm starting to have bad flashbacks to last years' training, where it was just ridiculously windy for every single long run and I could never finish a run feeling good about it because of the wind.

All of this is funny, because if anyone knows about OKC last year, that race made 20mph winds seem tame. Really, all this running into the wind is good practice becasue I'm 100% positive that it's going to be at least somewhat windy this year in OKC...but that doesn't make it any easier for me to cope. If I wasn't usually training for something in the summer, I'm fairly positive you wouldn't see me running outside on a windy day for more than 5 miles, tops. I really hate wind. It's my absolute least favorite weather condition.

Have I mentioned that I really, really, really hate wind? Okay, just making sure.

So, this is how weeks 9 and 10 looked:

Week 9:
Run 1 - 4 miles easy
Run 2 - 6 miles; 5 @ 9:06 pace (20 seconds faster than my goal)
Run 3 - 1 mile bonus
Run 4 - 16 miles

Week 10:
Run 1 - 2 miles easy
Run 2 - 6.5 miles; 4x1600 repeats @ 8:26, 8:28, 8:30, 8:22 (goal was 8:44)
Run 3 - 1.5 miles bonus
Run 4 - 20 miles

Week 11 will be 6 miles easy (ugh, what happened to my 2 mile easy runs?), 7 miles with 5 @ 9:26, and 16 miles on the weekend. The one thing I am proud of so far on this plan is that I've managed to stick with my speed work sessions very well...I've actually done them, which is a step above what happend last year. Second, I've managed to hit my pace every time. Now that I've probably jinxed myself, I hope I can keep that up for the 6 weeks. And if the next two long runs - 16 miles and 20 miles - go well, I'll be one happy girl.