Is 20 Enough?

This week I am finishing my first, but unofficial week of marathon training.  Recap post to come.  I have decided to go with Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1 program.  One reason I chose this program is because it has two 20 miles runs scheduled, and this year I am attempting to run two full marathon's a month apart from each other.

Yesterday on my "long" run of the week, 9 miles, I was running with the coordinator of our run club.  She also happens to be a level II USAT coach.  She is not coaching us in run club, she just coordinates the runs.  We started talking and my training plan came up.  The short story is, she believes that running only 20 miles is not enough for marathon training and thinks I should run more.  From all the reading and talking to other runners that I have done and I think 20 is enough.  Less risk of injury and you aren't running your race pace, so you are out there a little longer.

But her comments did get me thinking.  Should I try running more than 20 in these training runs.  I have a while to go before I am faced with this, but want to be prepared when the time comes.  I am hoping (knock on wood) that I am healthy for both of these races.  My first marathon I had tendinitis in my right knee and it started hurting 2 miles into the race.  My second one, I had bronchitis.  So my goal this time is to not just finish, but to have much better times.  I would like to run 4:15:00 this year, for at least one of the races.  Knee year I did a 5 hour(not to mention it was Austin, which is a very hilly place to be running with and injured knee), and bronchitis year I did a 4:40.

So I am asking you guys what you have done and think?  Is 20 miles enough?

Weaknesses

Overall I think having a healthy lifestyle means having strength.  Not necessarily physical strength, but the strength  to stay committed to what activity you are passionate about.  The strength to go to bed early, wake up early, skip social events, make the right nutrition decisions.  You get the picture.  And lately I have been letting my weaknesses overcome these strengths.  Lately I can't seem to pass up:

Ice cream

Wine

Candy

Sleeping in

Extra snacks when I don't need them and justify that they are healthy, ie almonds.

Pizza (though it is whole wheat crust)

I had no problem passing these things up before and can't figure out what is going on!!!

I gotta get out of this rut!  So what are your weaknesses?  How do you overcome them?

Weekend fun

So after my whinny post yesterday morning I am sticking with this blogging thing.  Sometimes you just need to whine, right?  Or maybe you just need to wine??

Anyway, on Facebook last night I posted what an amazing weekend we had.  A friend asked me why it was so amazing, and I realized that we really didn't do anything special.  It was just one of those weekend that flowed really well.

Saturday morning the alarm went off super early.  No matter how long I have been getting up early to run that first second of hearing the alarm that early is still shocking.  Anyway, we got up and went and ran.  I did 6 miles and felt pretty good.  I could have gone farther, but had committed to doing 6 with my friend Jenn. We followed that up with a nice little recovery swim.  The cold water feels so good after the hot weather, and isn't as miserable as an ice bath.  After the gym we headed to Starbucks for breakfast.  If you haven't tried their reduced fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich I highly recommend them.  They are a great healthy option for a quick fast food breakfast.  At breakfast we ran into some friends from our Tri club who were finishing up a bike ride and chatted with them for a while.  We then headed back to the house to let the dogs out and chill for a bit.  Then it was off to the movie.  We saw 'Horrible Bosses' which was hilarious.  We laughed the entire movie.  I think this will be one of those movies that we watch over and over again and keep picking up on new funny things.  So go see it so we can all quote it on Twitter!  After the movie we grabbed a healthy lunch at Jason's Deli (and even passed on the free ice cream, which becomes relevant later in the day)  By the time we got home it was about 3:00.  We settled in on the couch, each with a pug to cuddle with, to watch TDF and promptly took a 2 1/2 hour nap.  It was once of those amazing naps where you feel awesome when you wake up.  We had a little dinner and then decided to end the day at Coldstone, which we did not resist.

Now when we were pulling up to the Coldstone we were behind a mini-van.  Most of you probably know how Jeff feels about mini vans, but if you don't you can learn here.  For the record, I feel the same way about them.  That is one reason Jeff and I knew we were right for each other!  Anyway, as we were pulling into the parking spot, Jeff said, we have to beat that mini-van group to the line, and busted out a "this is what we train for, go, go go!"  We jumped out of the car, and raced to the store, and we beat them!!  It was a good thing too, because it was a family with like a dozen kids.  Jeff and I high five'd each other at our "podium" and indulged.  It was so good, but I know I will pay for it on the scale this week.

Sunday Jeff did some crazy 100 mile bike ride, so I actually slept in.  Went to the gym, did some time on the treadmill and then hit up yoga.  Came home, got some chores out of the way, and then went downtown to Rice Village to meet a friend for lunch.  There is a place down there that has the best mango chicken salad that I was craving so bad.  My friend works down at the Loft there, so it was perfect.  The only bad thing that happened was I splurged again, and got Jeff and I a cupcake from Celebrity Cupcakes which were amazing, amazing, amazing!

So there it it.  Just a nice relaxing agenda that held a lot of my favorite things.  Running, funny movie, spending time with Jeff, spending time with of my BFF's my favorite salad and a nap!  I hope to repeat next weekend.

Thanks for the inspiration to keep blogging.  Happy Training!

To Blog or Not to Blog, that is the question

I think it has been about 3 weeks, or maybe more since my last post.  One reason is because I feel like I don't have the time right now.  I am blocked from all social networking sites at work, so I can't fit it in there.  When I get home from work there is dinner, and then honestly I just veg out on the internet doing stupid stuff before going to bed to get up early to work out.  Then there is the fact that I am not training for anything right now.  If this is just a blog about my work out, it would be pretty boring right now.  Ran 5 miles, ran 5 miles, ran 5 miles, ran 6 miles.  Not very exciting stuff.  I am just trying to build my base back up for marathon training.  And I don't think I can come up with any really interesting or funny posts like my blogging celebrity husband to fill in the gaps between training.

So I have been asking myself if I am going to keep blogging.  I like being part of this world, and have met some awesome people.  But I really feel like I don't contribute anything to this world.  So I am at a crossroads if I am going to keep blogging or not.  I guess like everything else, only time will tell.