I have a feeling that Bataan will be like no other race I’ve ever done. It’s crucial for us to do our long runs on hills, against wind, and in the sand. The good thing about this is that we’ll gain fitness like we’ve never had it before, and also that our shorter runs during the week will become easier since we run around our relatively flat neighborhood. (Not to mention that we’ll torture the poor unfortunate 19 mile run we’ll have when we go back to Illinois to visit in February.)
The biggest elevation change for my Illinois marathon training was about +300 ft over the course of about six miles. Today? +600 ft over 2.5 miles, and starting out at about 4300 ft above sea level. Wowza.
There’s the map and elevation profile. And man, did we feel it! By the time mile 2 rolled around, I was pretty much yelling at Aaron that I couldn’t do it anymore. C’mon, Elizabeth. Stop being a pansy!!! You ran 26.2 flippin’ miles… you can do this! (That was me talking to myself, by the way, not Aaron talking to me… haha.)
We were up this morning at 6:42 AM, and that’s with no alarm. Whoops. I had energy that lasted all day and we got a lot accomplished! I had taken the day off because Aaron had a four-day weekend. It was nice to be off during the week together.
Here’s a picture of the sky on our drive to McKelligon Canyon.
Mountains are just plain awesome. That little tiny road is where we ran this morning. Looks quaint, right? HA!
Here’s us after our run…
Our average pace was 12:24, and we finished in 1:14. Not bad considering the elevation gain and wind. We did it.. that was my goal.
So, how did the rest of the week go?
Monday: Anaerobic exercises: pushups (on my knees still…), crunches, leg lifts, tricep dips, pullups (negatives where you jump up and try to slowly lower yourself down)
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 3 miles
Thursday: off.. stayed up too late since we had Friday off of work…
Friday: a really great 4 miles around the neighborhood.. avg pace was about 10:30, and the last .5 was at around 9:20. I was super-excited about that.
Saturday and Sunday: off…. (coughHusbandplayedSkyrimtillhisfingersbledcough)
Monday: 6 miles (I’ll consider Monday part of last week because of the long weekend)
Total: 13 miles. Quite a modest start to the training season.
Like I said, we don’t officially start the Hal Higdon Novice II training until next Monday, but we’re just doing the first two weeks twice. We’ll have 20 weeks of training, total. And I am kicking the core and upper body exercises into high gear this time around!
In case you were wondering, the clouds did melt away to reveal a gorgeous blue Texas sky. (No, in real life, Texas does not own the sky. But shhhh, don’t tell the Texans that!)
mercies per mile 