Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Miles run this week: 3, 6, 3.5, 10.3

So I just completed week 5 and this coming week is a "rest week" so that will be a nice change. I am pretty exhausted physically but I must admit I am not as sore as I thought I'd be and training has started to kick my butt yet. So I'm looking forward to the future progress. The runs during the week were easy and they are getting easier. I am doing all of these runs at or faster than 9 minutes a mile and for the 3 and 6 mile runs they were pretty easy and I finished without feeling exhausted. I expect that to only get even better from here on out.

I was not looking forward to the 10 mile run today. It will be my last run on a treadmill for a while. It was at the gym which meant I didn't have to deal with the elements. I also got to watch some Nascar coverage which made the miles crawl by. Oh football season, where art thou? I started the run with a heart rate of 145 bpm and I finished at 160. The reason for this is I ran faster today than the 9 mile run last week. Today I was doing 6.7 mph (as opposed to 6.3) and for the last mile I went up and down between 7 and 8 mph. I ended up running for exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes so I got to 10.3 miles. I must note that this is faster than a 2 hour half marathon which is faster than I want to be running the marathon.

My first two marathons took 4:20 and 4:47. I have not set a goal for the upcoming marathon because it basically relies on how Brandon is doing as well. I know I want to go fast and finish as soon as possible but I also care more about helping a friend cross for the first time than beating some stupid times. With my enthusiasm as high as it is right now, I am tempted to schedule my next marathon so there will definitely be another after this (*cough* the flying pig *cough*).

The 10 miles really felt good and while I am tired especially after coming home and playing with Liza in the pool, that is to be expected. After finishing at 160 bpm, I stopped completely and after two minutes my heart rate fell to 127 so that's pretty good. I'd love to get that down to 110 or 100.

Liza leaves tomorrow :( so I will blog tonight a little more about her time here. Pictures may have to wait because we are busy packing.

mile counter: 65.8