Guess who’s back, back again? Tell a friend, Lynda’s back. Last blog I was half a month into teaching my second semester and 29 miles in to my 100 mile running challenge for the month of January. Now, I’m starting week 8 of the second semester, and I was able to complete 100.29 miles for the January challenge!
I ran another half marathon at the end of January and was able to shave off 3 minutes from my finish time and increase my average pace by about 10-seconds. Little by little, I feel like I am slowly getting faster and I am proud with my progress. Last weekend I ran 10 miles and increased my overall pace even more– I shaved about 30 seconds from my average pace! Granted it wasn’t another half, but fairly close!
I’ve been doing interval training running on the treadmill, which I attribute to increasing my pace and hopefully it continues to help me get faster. Now mind you, I’m supposed to run a 30k this weekend, but despite knowing that I *can* physically run 18.6 miles, I don’t think I’m mentally ready to run it alone. Part of running with SRLA and signing up for races is that I get to run these long distances with other runners. I get to hear the cheers on the sidelines and see the funny, creative posters that they wave around to support us. Running the half-marathons have been doable but really grueling mentally, so running another 5.6 or so miles in addition to the 13.1 when my mind is already struggling at mile 11, I’m not sure I can do it. I also do need to figure out a set route to be confident in knowing where I’ll be running and be surprised with the route.
I had originally mapped out a route on MapMyRun, which I previewed in my 10-mile run last weekend, but came to quickly see it wasn’t the best– at least a good 2-3 miles of it. The road was extremely lonely in an industrial area and there wasn’t any sidewalk for me to actually run on, forcing me to run on the street with oncoming traffic. I’m glad I checked it out beforehand so that I didn’t run it this weekend. I’ll figure out a clear route and run it in early March to earn my medal!
Running virtually this season has also taught me how much I do rely on my mental strength to get the long distances done. If there’s a switch in my route or something unexpected, it ends up messing with my brain and I have to use more mental energy to power through. If I’m unsure, then I really have to keep my mind open to see what happens, like I was this past weekend since I knew I was testing out the route that I had mapped. I will say that the mind is definitely a powerful tool and I hope that when I do run the 18.6 miles, I am mentally prepared and super pumped to be running this long distance on my own that it won’t be mentally grueling. As I’m typing this, I’m remembering that I actually have run this much on my own back when I was training for my first marathon! How did I forget that?! I ran from my mom’s old house all the way down one of the main streets that goes through different cities. I remember I was supposed to run 20 miles and I ended up doing like 18.5 instead. Wow! Okay, I totally got this! I just have to get my route ready and I’m good! Yesss! That’s what I’m talking about!
February is almost over and I didn’t reach my 80 mile month goal and most likely wont, but I did run about 57 miles so far. Not 80 miles, but still pretty good for me! In tracking my running, I averaged running 3x during the week with either a long run and a rest day or a long run and a short run on the weekends. The good thing about the other 100-mile challenge that I am currently doing (the I AM ENOUGH Challenge) is that there is no time frame and you can do the 100 miles however you want. Ultimately, I am trying to build a habit of running consistently throughout the week with longer runs on the weekend, so these challenges are just the motivation I need to kickstart this habit.
Oh, I also get new shoes (throwing in this reminder to the runners reading this to get a new pair of shoes after 300-500 miles of running)! For the past two years, I’ve used Asics, but I went to Runners World in Pasadena and walked out with New Balance this time around. So far they feel really good! We’ll see how March goes in terms of running. I hope to continue to increase my pace and get more mileage in.
I promise to update more consistently so that these blogs don’t get so long! hehe. ❤ One love.
Confessions of a 40-Year-Old Teacher Mom 