Better hills

Week 2's hill repeats went great, which means the pain was moderate :O I chose a more gradual hill and concentrated on maintaining good form. I did seven 1-minute repeats with about 2 minutes of jogging in between. Whew! I did some extra stretching afterwards and savored a chocolate protein shake.

Toward the end of the workout, I crossed paths a couple times with an adorable older (probably around 80 years old) woman who was power walking in a cute-as-a-button lilac velour tracksuit. We said hi to each other and smiled. And I truly hope that when I reach her age, even if I'm not huffing and puffing and hauling myself up hills, I'll be out and about on walks!

Gettin' better by takin' it easy

Even though it was gray and humid, today's recovery run went by very quickly. The streets were quieter than usual. I chose a relatively flat route, but I've noticed that most of my routes include some for-realz hills. Jenica had the idea that I should drive to a flat route for easier runs, and I might do that this Friday. I avoided most puddles and reminded myself to take it easy ;)

I know that recovering and rest are essential parts of being a runner, especially a marathoner. As training continues, I'll need to focus on running my recovery runs nice 'n' slow, stretching, sleeping, hydrating, and getting extra protein and carbs.

Confidence

There's and yin and yang to marathon training. It's impossible to race 26.2 miles without some fairly rigorous training (unless you want to be in a world of pain!!).

At the same time, training too hard by increasing mileage too quickly or simply running too fast without adequate recovery has its drawbacks. Obviously, completing an assortment of workout builds up muscles and blood vessels and heart and lung and breathing stuff. More ambiguously, training boosts your confidence so you can tackle a tougher race pace and muster the attitude kick it in at the end. If workouts are tough or if I'm sweating a lot, I remind myself that it'll make the race seem like cake :P A 9:40 pace would have me finishing the SF marathon around 4:15, but I have some confidence that I can average 9:30 miles...Yikes! Typing that made me feel less confident and more ouchy.

Today's medium long run felt great and raised my confidence that I'm able to cruise along at a solid pace for longer distances. Workouts like today make me realize that I'm getting stronger because when you're stronger, you feel great cruising down the road- well, sidewalk.

Take two

Tomorrow is the first day of the second week of marathon training. I usually don't keep track of weeks in this way, but blogging seems to draw attention to my training schedule and overall timeline for getting prepared for the July race. This will be a slightly easier week of training.

I've also been thinking about running more with my ipod. The SF Marathon doesn't have tons of crowd support, and I thought that listening to music could help me stay in a groove. A first step would be start using the ipod more while training and also make a new playlist for the shuffle.

On tap for this week:
Key 1: Medium long run

• 70 minutes
  

Key 2: Hills

• 6-7 1 min. hill repeats- may choose a more gradual hill (Pleasant Valley?) to simulate racing conditions
  

Key 3: Weekend Long run

• 15 miles- A coastal tour of Alameda
  

Legendary

Every once in awhile, I imagine the type of tales that I will tell in 50 years. I might mention today's harrowing rainy day run in San Francisco. The 13.8 mile run involved 2608 feet of ascent and 2562 feet of descent. And yes, it was uphill both ways! The perks included cruising down past the Cliff House and hot coffee at the end (thanks, J!). Oh, and a Saul's pastrami sandwich for lunch really hit the spot :P

The run made me feel good about training for a marathon and ready for the challenging weeks ahead. I think my legs have the strength to take on the longer runs. I know that each run will help my heart and lungs can do the tough work over the legendary SF terrain.

May day

To celebrate May day, I didn't run with flowers in my hair or skip around a may pole, but I did wear a red shirt and dragged myself out for a tough tempo run. The morning was gray with many clouds and higher humidity than usual. My legs felt quite good on the primarily uphill warmup.

I worked hard during the 20 minute tempo portion and pushed myself up one big hill and one medium (but longer) hill. On the flipside, there was a yahoo of a downhill; I might as well have run down a waterslide! On the downhill, I concentrated on my form and balance and used my arms.

The conclusion is that I'm happy I didn't bag this key run...Viva el tempo workouts!!