DAY TWENTY-TWO – LONG – 4.9 MILES AT 6.2 MPH – Second of 10 Long Runs
Well, it seems that speed on my long runs continues to be a problem. I set my GPS to alert me when I dipped under 6 mph and subjected myself to a continual barrage of beeps and SPEED UP messages. This is not good. However, I did complete the 4.9 miles with an average speed of about 5.6 mph, which is still above my needed race pace and above the 5.33 I did on my last long run, so I’m gonna still call today a success.

I know I have to pretend like I actually ran the marathon on each of the 10 long runs I have scheduled. Even though I only did 4.9 miles today, which is nowhere near 26.2, it is more than the 3.9 I did last time and I’m not injured or overly fatigued and I have to act as if that’s how I’m going to feel at the end of the actual marathon – uninjured and not overly fatigued. If I finish the marathon in that condition, it will be a major success, regardless of whether or not I hit my speed goal and finish in 4 hours and 59 minutes.

DAY TWENTY-THREE – EASY – 2.1 MILES at 4.5 MPH
Today was supposed to be easy. The key words there are “supposed to be.” I was excited to use my new GPS and I started out correctly by warming up and stretching before my ‘run.’ (For me, trying to lope along at 4.5 miles per hour isn’t really running.) I realized that our overhead powerlines were probably interfering with the GPS signal, so I took a couple of turns here and there to get away from them. I was just on neighborhood streets, so it’s not like I was gonna get lost… Famous last words.

I did my run and had started to head home as my required distance was drawing near. However, I got to a place that I thought should have been really close to my house and found myself in a dead end. I retraced my steps somewhat and knew that turning right would most certainly take me home eventually, but that it would be about a mile out of the way. I thought that turning left would lead me home more quickly, but at that point, I really couldn’t be sure because I had already been wrong once and once I get turned around or disoriented, there’s no telling where I might end up, so I took the longer, but sure, way home and added about an extra mile onto my trip.

When I got home and downloaded my data, it was quite hilarious. I was very, very, very close to my house, standing in the dead-end, but there was no easy way to get to my house from where I was unless I could fly, so taking the long way back home was probably the best choice anyhow. Lesson learned – the GPS cannot make you more intelligent, it can only tell you where you have been. And, since then, I have learned how to use it to retrace my steps, but that wouldn’t have even helped in this situation since I had been all over the neighborhood during my run and to retrace my steps would have doubled my distance, not just gotten me home.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR – PACER – 3 MILES AT 5.45 MPH = 11 MINUTE MILE PACE
Today’s run must have been so uneventful that, 4 days later, I can’t even remember it. I have GPS data for the run, so I know I did it, and by looking at the path, I do have some recollection of doing that run, but there are no humorous or disturbing stories to tell about it. About all I remember is that I didn’t use the high/low speed alerts on the GPS because they’re just not sensitive enough to be accurate, but I think I did set an absolute low of 5 mph to clue me in on any extended periods of slow running that might set in, which really didn’t happen. The alert did go off a bunch of times, but that was because of it’s inacurracy, not because I was really running at that pace, so I could ignore the isolated alerts. I was able to maintain a speed of about 5.6 miles per hour which was above my goal, so I was pleased with my performance.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE – CROSS TRAINING – FOUR AND 1/2 HOURS
Today’s cross-training event is a hike. My husband found this hike on an internet hiking website and he’s been wanting to try it for some time. It was 4 miles down to a natural spring and it was truly gorgeous. For those of you interested in hiking, it was the Fossil Springs Trail, near Strawberry, Arizona. The only catch was that it was 4 miles DOWN to the springs, which meant that to get back to the car, you had to come 4 miles back UP. It only took about 90 minutes to get down, but it took about 2 1/2 hours to get back up. Great cross-training!

DAY TWENTY-SIX – REST
Today was an awful day. I woke up in a distracted, worried mood. I had gotten a terrible e-mail from a family member the night before, on the other side of the family I had an injured grandfather anticipating risky surgery, and it was also clear that one of our cats was having a serious problem that would warrant medical attention. I putzed around on the computer long enough for the vet’s office to open so I could call and make an appointment for our cat. It was about then that I noticed I was supposed to be out walking with my neighbor. Yikes! I left an apology message for her on voice mail and got ready to go to the vet. The news we got there was unexpected and devastating. The prognosis for our cat was not good enough to even bring him home and we made the difficult decision to put him down. The rest of the day was a total waste. Neither my husband nor I got anything much accomplished, other than just sitting with our grief.

Now, what this has to do with marathon training is very minimal. However, when traumatic events happen in the middle of your training, it is natural for you to be stunned and unmotivated for a time. However, if you let the tragedy pull you too far off of your training schedule, it can be very difficult to get caught back up, so I know that although I must give myself adequate time and permission to grieve and process the events in my life, I cannot skip important training sessions or I will not be able to reach my marathon goals.

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN – CROSS TRAINING – TWO HOURS
Today my neighbor, Debbie, allowed me to redeem myself for standing her up yesterday. We were supposed to walk together yesterday, but I didn’t look at my calendar until about 7:00am and by then it was far too late to “Meet Debbie in the Cul-du-Sac” at 5:30am. Big Ooops! But, anyhow, we walked today.

We started out, each thinking the other was ‘leading,’ and about a half-mile into our walk we realized neither one of us had a real plan for where we were headed. However, having walked miles upon miles in this neighborhood last year, preparing for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk, we easily decided upon a route that would lead us through neighborhoods and parks and give us hours to talk about all things under the sun. My GPS watch was still set from my hike two days ago when I wanted half-mile alerts, so it went off every half mile and we couldn’t believe how quickly the half-miles came and went.

After about 2 hours, we were both starting to feel the strain in our legs and in certain areas on our feet, so we brought our walk to a close at about 7.25 miles. It was a delightful walk, good training for Debbie’s 3-Day walk, and great cross-training for me.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT – SPEED – 1.5 MILES AT 7 MPH
Today brings my 4th week of training to an end. I cannot believe that a month has gone by already. What is even harder for me to believe is that I still haven’t really cheated or slipped up on my training. That is a huge accomplishment. I see, today, that I’m 4 entries behind on my marathon blog, so, in that regard I am slipping a little bit, but we recently had to put one of our cats to sleep – unexpectedly – and that knocked me on my butt for a few days. I think I’m just now starting to come around again, so I don’t think my training will suffer, only the documentation, and I think I can catch that all up right now. I’ll start with today’s entry.

I woke still sad about my cat and unmotivated to do anything useful. I ate pie for breakfast, which is not exactly what the Olympic coaches recommend, but I figure it was only about 200 calories and that I’d run that off later, which I did. It took me half the day to get motivated to do my run, but I did eventually drive to the gym and do my speed run – a mile and a half at 7 miles per hour. Today my grief worked to my training advantage in that I started out very slowly and allowed myself to warm up properly. I walked, then jogged, a little over a mile in order to work myself up to 7 miles per hour. Once at that speed, it wasn’t as hard as usual to maintain it. I managed to lose myself into the T.V.’s at the gym, which were playing what appeared to be a dance competition reality show. I couldn’t hear the music, but the dancing was spectacular and the mile and a half clicked steadily away without a lot of distress on my part. I then also allowed myself about another mile of cool-down and then several minutes of stretching. I returned home much more energized than before I had left. I may actually accomplish anything else today. Who knows?

I look forward to next week as sort of a fresh start. I’m ready to leave Week Four behind.