I have been enjoying the full time training so much lately and am starting to see the benefits of proper recovery. I have some solid races behind me, but most of all the training has been going very well for so many weeks now. It is important for me to be frequently reminded to not lose sight of the big goals at the end of the season. For me this year, the big goal is to have a race of my life at the ING NY Marathon. I have done NY a few times and never performed as well as I had hoped there, but recently much has changed in my life and the way I train. I train as hard as I always have before, but I take more time in the day for the little things like napping, stretching, strengthening and eating the right foods at the right time. I love what I do more than ever before. I thrive on running lots of miles or doing the long enduring workouts and the short intense reps. I love working hard period. I have always believed that one cannot discover their full potential without the passion to work hard. I believe I have what it takes to work very hard and now more than anything I have restructured my life to support the dreams I chase.
I am now 6 weeks out from the New York Marathon and the last 2 weeks training went really well. I raced the New Haven 20k, where I ran a very poor race strategically. My goal was to run 5:20’s and my first mile was 5:06. I slowed down immediately, but still came through my second mile in 5:17. I paid for it a few miles after that and struggled all the way home with heavy legs and feeling crappy about my move. I managed to finish third and after asking myself why I did what I did, I found something positive about the race. I told myself that I ran 2 fast miles followed by a 10-mile Marathon Pace run and when you look it that way that’s a great workout after all. I took 3 easy days to recover from the trip and later that week ran the most exciting workout so far. I did another big TLT workout where I started with threshold miles, followed with 60 min of easy running and more threshold afterward. Warm up and cool down included that was 22 miles again.
Last week was a high volume week for me. I ran 145 miles. My long run consisted of 22 miles in the morning followed with an 8 mile run in the evening. While I don’t run 30 mile days all that often, I like to have a couple of them under my belt when I’m preparing for a big marathon. This week will be another high mileage week.
I am gearing up for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Jose on October 4th and the Tufts 10k in Boston on October 12th. Both races should be good fitness indicators for me, but I’m really focusing on actually racing well, too. The Half Marathon will be a good chance for me to lower my PR again, and that’s something I’m really excited about. The Tufts 10k is another USARC Series race, so I know the competition will be good there as well. As an added bonus I will visit Saucony HQ while I am there.
Bottom line is: Dream big, work hard and keep the passion alive!
Until Next Time!
Magda
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