Weekend Workouts: Stretching and Pushing the Pace

I did yoga yesterday for the first time in about 3 months. It felt great, although it was hot (outside temperature-wise-- I don't do Bikram but Hatha) and I was sore today. Mainly my core and my legs. I do Yoga for Runners, which is excellent and focuses on areas that runners need to relax and strengthen. Lots of exercises to open the hips, loosen the infamous IT band, quads and glutes, strengthen the feet and prevent injury.



So good to be back in the land of "ooooommmm" and namaste. Especially since it's so well-adapted to what my body's doing now. I've been tracking mileage for the month of August and after my run today, I have officially run 102K so far this month. Right on track for marathon training which requires 200K a month (50K a week). Think I'll try to go up a little in Sept, maybe to 250K, if I can, and then back down in October since the big marathon is in early November and you should peak intensity maybe a month away and then reduce intensity closer to the competition...

And the seminal run that broke 100K for August 2013? I feel great about it because I pushed myself more than I usually do. It was a good feeling, it's a cliché, but you really are capable of so much more than you think you are-- although my legs were tired afterwards! We ran it in 9:15 minute miles (5:45 min km) For me, this is closer to my race pace (I run a 2-hour half marathon which is just a little over 9 min miles) than training pace, so very pleased. 15K isn't really that far, but confident that I can build up to longer distances at this pace.



I also tried to think about lifting my knees up more than I usually do (I've been told this is a problem with my form, one of many problems) and can feel that my glutes are sore now, so hopefully that means I was doing it bettter today.

Today's pace would be a great pace if I could train myself to run at entire marathon at that speed (that's the hard part!)  If I could push it just a tad under 9:15 (like to 9:09 min/miles) on race day, that would be a 4 hour marathon which was what I was going for in April in my first marathon.

As you know, running the Paris marathon in 4 hours was a fail, but a learning experience because, as I discovered, marathons are tough and the mental aspect is important! I wasn't sure I'd finish until I did, so already feel way stronger training for the distance the second time around. Now I know I can run 26.2 miles. Because I have. (Even if there was a good deal of walking in the last 10K...)

The advantage of doing the weekly long run with a group is that it helps you run faster than you usually do. I run with a group called Let's Run Paris. They're a great bunch with 3 different pace groups (5 min/km, 6 min/km and 7 min/km) and we finish our long runs each week with breakfast together. Tired but energised and happy is a great way to start the weekend!

Now ready to fall into bed and have a brick tomorrow, meaning doing 2 of the 3 tri sports one right after the other-- it supposedly gets its name from the fact that after when you move on to sport number 2, your legs feel like bricks since you've just finished sport number 1! The program for tomorrow is an open water swim in the lake, followed by a run and a picnic. Not a fan of cycling, so happy to replace it with picnicking any day-- my kind of triathlon! And it really does involve a picnic basket that looks like this one.