Catch up!

It's high time I wrote in this thing. The last time I wrote, I was still Reade Winner, still lived in Alabama, and still hadn't seen the Great Pyramids yet. All that has since changed, and in the whirlwind of throwing a party (wedding), packing for Texas, buying a house, selling a house, going on our honeymoon and actually moving to Texas I not only neglected this blog, but I also neglected my running.

By all accounts, I think the amount of life-stuff Rob and I took on in such a short time is about a good excuse as any to fall off a training schedule. I didn't completely blow it though; the weekend before the wedding I got in a 9 miler, and I got a couple of 3-4 mile runs in the week before the wedding. The Monday after we got married, I ran 7.5 miles, but that was my last "long run" until we got back to the states...a month later.

And that's how I found myself 9 weeks from the marathon and panicked. Rob and I did a quick Google search, and found that other people had gone from zero to marathon in the same period of time (or even less!) so we set a schedule for ourselves. Basically, we're following a 16 week marathon plan and only doing weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. Doing that will put us at 18 miles for our longest long run, which is slightly less than the standard (20) but I think we will be able to complete the marathon. We won't do well, but we will finish.

Today I did 9 miles. I had been doing some research on different types of runs, because I have noticed that I really only have one pace. Earlier this week I did my first "Threshold" run, where I ran at a comfortably hard pace (9:00-9:30ish) for 4 minutes, and then did a 90 second recovery (10:30-11:00) and did that 3 times, plus 3 extra miles at my usual pace (5 miles total). I really enjoyed that one! All of my research concerning how fast my long runs should be indicated that I have been running my long runs way too fast. I decided today to try to run by heart rate instead of monitoring my current pace. There are a lot of heart rate formulas out there, if you just Google something like "heart rate training." I determined that for long runs, during which I am really supposed to be able to hold conversations without having to pause every few words to catch my breath, my heart rate should be between 142 and 157 bpm. That seemed incredibly low to me, but I was determined to try it out, and I am pretty happy with that decision.

My fancy Garmin actually has a function in it which allows me to set how many miles I want to run and what range my heart rate is allowed to be in. If I went out of that zone (above or below) the watch made a fairly annoying noise. Once I slowed my heart rate back down (I never went below the range) it made a pleasant "beep!" The last 2 miles I just could not keep my heart rate that low without outright walking, so I just ignored the annoying sound and still ended up with a 12:29 average for the run. I know that doesn't sound all that great, but considering how good I felt throughout the whole run, I will take it! I need to keep reminding myself that I just want to finish this marathon--I'm not out for any awards.

I am liking Texas so far. We're working on getting plugged into a church and we have found one that we like pretty well. The only problem we have with it is the size, but we have spent some time with a small group for newlyweds which has been a good way to feel connected. Rob seems to like his job, and I am searching for my own job. For now I am just working on getting the house together!

I really will try to be more committed to this blog from now until the marathon. REALLY.