I wrap up the first week back to training tomorrow morning with the Emmaus 4-miler race .. I had actually forgotten about it until I tweeted this morning after my long run and was reminded. Hmmm .. 22 miles the day before a race? Well, I only plan to use the race tomorrow as an extra speed workout, I don’t think i’m going to do particularly well (or push it too hard with 3 weeks until The Flying Pig)… I did place 3rd in my age group last year in this race, but I don’t expect a repeat performance this year.
I’ve been terribly busy at work and with other things the last 2 weeks or so, and looking back at last 3 weekends .. I raced 2 weekends ago and was out of town, spent last weekend in Connecticut and now i’ve got company coming in this entire weekend .. next weekend is definitely a rest weekend for me.
Despite the hectic schedule though, I still managed to NOT get into the ING New York City marathon again this year, and overall I was not surprised. This means I have to find another November marathon to run, although I think i’ve settled on the Outer Banks marathon in North Carolina. I chose that one because I’m looking to expand the number of states i’ve raced in, and I’m as far as Virginia at this point and its probably a smart idea to head south that late in the year (because it gets cold up here). OBX is on November 14th, actually a week later than NYC and week before Philly was last year.. It was tough training up until Thanksgiving last year with the weather and all, so I’m thinking this will work out just fine for me… The reviews look pretty good for it, so any other opinions that anyone has on it are certainly appreciate. With having that settled, the one i’m debating now is the September marathon (Lehigh Valley Health Network marathon), i’m not sure I want to run it again this year, i’ve done it 2 times already but maybe I can find a better September marathon (or just use it as a tune-up race) … anyone know of an east coast September marathon that you could suggest? I can’t find anything good on Marathon Guide where I find most of my races, any suggestions are welcome.
So today I did the first 22+ miler since the marathon 2 weeks ago, and it really was a good run. I have to attribute the excellent performance on todays run to the better, clean eating that i’ve been doing .. and to the extra core workouts (and 100 pushups program) which has kicked my training up a notch. It was quite cool today in comparison to the last week and a half or so .. actually it was the wind that was bad. I was joking with myself this past week about how last year at this time, it was still cold and windy (and I guess I jinxed myself).. oh well, it was nothing like it was in January and February, so I was able to handle it. I also think the fact that i’ve done the marathon distance recently makes the 22 miler feel a little different .. it doesn’t seem quite that far (its weird how that works).
In addition to the great running performance I had today, I even ran negative splits on my speed workout on Thursday morning as well, so thats another sign that the changes in my habits is helping me perform better .. maybe its that i’m getting pumped for the race. The only downfall is that I was so terribly sore yesterday after my morning workout, I mean everything was sore .. but thankfully its gotten better since then.
On another note, I think i’ve finally got my minor stomach issue under control a little better, i’ve been taking Prilosec to combat the indigestion and heartburn that started a few weeks back (and didn’t help me for the Ocean Drive marathon). It started to flare up again this week a little bit but has now settled itself ..
Well, my company has arrived, another update tomorrow hopefully …