Practice what I Preach.

Last week I met a girlfriend for coffee to talk about her training. She is running her first marathon.
I am no professional. Not even close. But she wanted some of my thoughts.

Those thoughts came into play with me this week when planning training run.

Lacey and I have continually increased our long run every week.
Regardless of getting sick, bad weather, small body nuisances we continue to plug along.

Last week, I got my teeth knocked out from the never ending cold. Lacey was annoyed with a knee issue, we knew this was the week to scale back.
The same advice I had just given my sweet friend earlier this week, I too was chewing on it.
It was tough to swallow, but a entre that was good for both Lacey and I.

Rather than run 17 miles, we scaled back to 14 miles.
Last week we were in shorts, this week we were back to our Michigan winter wear.
I picked the route. Flat, out and back. I had us doing a loop, Lacey did not want to end up trying to add miles or subtract miles.
When we reached a very easy 6.65 miles she had us turn around to guarantee our mileage. Two airheads running in the cold and wind are not the best at navigating mileage.

The first 6 miles went by like cake. We removed and hid our buffs we got so warm. I have no idea what we both drank but we tinkled multiple times. I almost peed my pants laughing at Lacey trying to pull her britches up in the ditch as a car was approaching. Lacey got her paybacks when I squatted behind a tree the said "NO TRESSPASSING." I quickly discovered I was peeing in what appeared to be a dead deer cemetery. A pelvis bone, a leg bone, a whole leg all connected, it literally scared the pee out of me. GROSS.

Nothing was easy on the turn around back into town where I parked. The wind hit us in the face like the devil himself. I was thankful I had us running a very flat route, making the beating a little less intense.
Our fun conversations came to a screeching halt on the way home. It was all mental, all the way back.
I kept checking our pace thinking we were running too fast. OH no, we were keeping pace and it was keeping us feeling like death, a death crawl. "LSD, this doesn't feel like a LONG SLOW DISTANCE, this wind is sucking the life out of me." I thought, and even my thinking felt like work.

RUNDOWN
Distance: 14.01
Pace: 8:57

Week 9 Glass City Marathon training.

Practice What I Preach.
Yeah, I did good this time. I chuckled to myself when Lacey suggested we bring our miles down and then kick the back up next week.
I secretly patted myself on the back as I remembered my little coffee conversation I had last week. I took my own advice.
The reality is, I am far from perfect. I don't always to this. I am not picture perfect by any means. I do say things and completely do the opposite.
But today, I got it right!

Anita~