Race Schedule

Ok, so I think I've got a pretty ambitious race schedule lined up this year...lots of half marathons and of course the crown jewel, the one I've been waiting for, the race I've wanted to do ever since I've started marathoning – the NYC marathon.

Here's what I've got so far:

• Manhattan Half Marathon – January (done!)
• More Half Marathon – April 4th
• Flying Pig Marathon – May 1st
• Brooklyn Half Marathon – May TBD
• Queens Half Marathon – July 30th
• Bronx Half Marathon – August 27th
• Staten Island Half Marathon – October 9th
• NYC Marathon – November 6th

I'm sure I'll throw in a few of my other NYRR favorites here and there. Especially in the summer and especially if my friends join in. Coogan's was fun last year and I always like the Pride Race (mainly for the cool t-shirts, music and popsicles at the end) and there's always a lot of great swag at the Scotland Run. I think it might be kind of easy to get my 9 races if I can do all of this. Then I can do NYC in 2012 too! But I am getting waaaaaay ahead of myself. Maybe right now I should just take one run at a time.

I am going to check out the Pfitzinger plan in Advanced Marathoning. But this might be a little ambitious too. Especially since my points total for this week so far is: 1. Yes, that's right. And that doesn't even come from a workout...it's from eating a healthy dinner. :)

12 miler

This is it! The longest run of the season before the half marathon! I was definitely excited to do the mileage, but still a smidge sore from a 4-miler I did during the week while I was traveling in Philly. Seems my calves had it in for me.

Luckily, we had a whole group to tackle this task, which always makes running more fun..A bunch of my friends are doing the More Half Marathon and we decided to run it together...EASY, and then reward ourselves with brunch.

It's amazing how much faster it all goes when you are chatting. There were 4.5 of us (Donna only did 6 miles with us because she is not actually running the half) and we never ran out of conversation :)

We also maintained about a 12 minute mile because it was Bess' first 12-miler, Gina said she hadn't really been training like she should and I was nursing super sore calves. Guess what? It totally worked! I was sore up until the evening, but after that, I was fine! I was so amazed. I also told Gina that running at that pace seemed a ton less daunting even though it took a lot longer.

Gina said that taking your long runs at a much slower pace is actually a very crucial part of the Pfitzinger plan which is an intense plan that is heavy on mileage but promises extraordinary results. Gina used the plan to get her first sub-4:00 marathon in NYC last year and ended up smashing her goal! I had told her that if it worked for her then I was going to try it for my next marathon. (So I guess I have to try it now).

But I was very intrigued by this whole long slow distance thing. I mean, Coach Ramon ALWAYS tells us to do this, but the fact is, I run my long runs not THAT much differently than my goal pace for the marathon.

Anyway, we were all proud of ourselves when we finished, and walked another half mile to brunch, where I rewarded myself with a stack of pancakes and a plate of cheese fries (gotta have the sweet AND savory!)