NYC Marathon Training Week 7

Miles: 33.92; Supportive Friends: too many to count…

Sometimes I just don’t know how lucky I am. After last week’s run-fail-confessional, I received so many attaboy, hang in there, and you can dooo eeeeett’s that I suffered an embarrassment of riches. And let me tell you those little words, each positive affirmation, every. single. one. of. them. makes me smile and put one foot in front of the other. While out with the ladies last week, I even had one of my friends sit down next to me and say: “So, you’re running a marathon? You know, I’m really proud of you.” That may have single-handedly been the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a decade. If you have never used the words “I am proud of you” to another adult, you should try it. Seriously.

On the training front, I had 3 awesome things happen this week:

1. My tempo run didn’t suck. That has NEVER happened. I didn’t even really know what a tempo run was until this madness started. I teach music. Tempo = Speed of the Beat. Truly, these should be called Allegro runs, Vivace runs,  or Presto runs. You know, slow is a speed too….just saying.
2. My 16 mile long run was livable. I’m not going to say it was awesome, but I finished it. Still (mostly) running. Looping back to my house at mile 10 to refuel and change my clothes was a life saver. Especially after being soaked to the bone several times in FL humidity and showers. My legs were toast for the rest of the day, I guess I’m going to have to suck it up and try an ice bath if I expect to walk on any Saturday between now and November 1st.
3. I ran more than 30 miles this week. Holy cow. I’m looking back at my journal and seeing that most of my weeks from March – June only ran between 9-14 miles. Maybe. But I’ve logged 183.46 miles since training officially began on June 29th, and 526 miles for the year so far. Call this Supermom impressed!

School starts tomorrow for me, and I’ve already set my alarm for 5 a.m. so that I can get my run in before school. Some days I will need to move that up to 4 a.m. to get the longer ones in — but its the first week, let’s ease into things, shall we? For now, I’m going to savor my last official summer activity: eating a giant bowl of fresh homemade ice cream. Matilda picked the flavor: strawberry-banana-chocolate-chip.