Race Training

First off, I would like to announce that my next post will be entirely dedicated to answering your running questions. Sometimes I just feel like I'm throwing information at you and I don't know how much it really helps. Now you can ask questions and I will answer from my own experience and the experience of my fellow running friends. What challenges do you face with your running? In what areas do you need some advice for improvement? What would you just like to know more about?

Speaking of my own experience, it's about time I give you all an update about my training. This past week my running partner Juliette bought a GPS watch! She got a great deal on it through Craigslist. It is a Garmin 2007 model, but it exceeds our needs. We made up our own route for our 7 mile run on Saturday morning by heading in one direction until it notified us we had gone 3.5 miles. Then we simply turned around and headed back--after a potty break at McDonald's, of course.

Juliette loves having the watch and is always checking our pace. I'm so glad she does this because the numbers stress me out too often. (Remember THIS?) Anyway, by the time we finished our run we had averaged a 10-minute mile pace. Now that's not very fast, but it is improvement. At this rate, we will run this year's half marathon faster than last year's half marathon... and this year we are doing a more difficult race! I'm really excited. This race will have 3 hills between miles 4 and 6 and then about a mile of gravel surface near mile 9. What a great challenge! Six weeks to race day and then perhaps a full marathon in the late summer. Here's to an excellent race season!