WEEK 20: 23 miles and Bedford 12K

Mon - core/strength
Tues: 30 min elliptical + core; massage!
Wed: Pisgah OAB with Griffin on Old Chesterfield Road; LOG 5
Thu: Keen Railbed; LOG 10
Fri: 0
Saturday: Bedford 12K, 58:33/7:52 pace; LOG 8
Sunday: core

I intended to do a little run on Sunday to have a little more mileage this week, but that never happened.  Cleaned the house and enjoyed a quiet Sunday with no racing and just hung out at home with my husband.  We seem to have a bunch of new life in our yard- baby cardinal (so cute), baby robin (huge!), and baby phoebe's by our front door (hungry! saw a parent grab a moth right out of the air!).  I was pretty distracted with watching them all day.  Greg found a turtle in the yard while he was mowing (no he didn't hit it) and I saw another on the road while walking Grif (have also seen a couple dead baby ones. wah.).  I wish I could see into the nest of the Blue Herons on the pond- I bet there's babies there too.  Anyway, enough about nature.

Saturday's race was fun.  I looked at it like a good tempo run and that's what I did.  It's a rolling course with lots of shade.  I had done this race when I first began running 3 years ago and ran 1:07.  Was pretty sure I'd PR. We started at 9am and it was probably about 70 degrees?  Really sunny. No humidity (that's key).  The miles clicked by quickly and I just tried to stay comfortable but working hard and concentrated on keeping my turnover quick.  Last mile and an older guy says "we're doing alright! Just stay relaxed and we'll be done in no time". And he was right, I just stayed relaxed and got to the last hill to the track and felt pretty good.  Even passed a couple people on the track.  Even had a smile for the finish as Greg cheered me on.  (That's my new thing, I'm going to try to smile more while running...I did it during this race and I gotta say it does help a little!  I know I smile in the woods when I am running with Griffin, so why not?)  I finished at 58:31- 9 minutes faster then 3 years ago.  And my miles were steady (7:36, 7:45, 8:02, 7:54, 7:52, 7:45, 8:10, 3:23 (.45mile)= 58:33(my watch)).  I'm not sure if the 7th mile was marked a little long or I just fell off pace- I didn't feel like I did, but whatever.  17th in my age group/28th female master.  Not too bad for a Grand Prix race.  I feel like I should be more consistently closer to and under 7:45 pace if not 7:30.  I'll work on that this coming year.  Greg had a one second PR.  He's pretty excited to get this marathon over with too. Hmmm just noticed on coolrunning my time is now 58:35...could have sworn it said 58:32 when Greg looked at it last night.  haha

So here we are, my last post before the marathon...this week, rest, hydrate and try not to do anything stupid.  "Hay is in the barn."  I'm excited.  I get more excited when I see a cool weather report, but after yesterdays report being high 71/low 45 it has now crept upwards...I have a bad feeling it will continue to do so.  BUT it is what it is and I'm trying not to stress about it (unless checking the weather every 2 hours on three different websites is considered stressing).  It's exactly like checking the weather for our wedding!  If it ends up being the same we're in good shape.  Anyway, I don't feel like I've had enough big mileage weeks, but I have to try to muster some confidence and just have fun with it.  I have plenty of things I want to work on afterwards!  After all, it's a process, and I love it!