More Marathon Training

So during week 2, God decided to turn up the heat. It's really tough to hit the pace I need to hit in this heat. It'll be in the 90s this week and probably every day until some time in September. The good thing is that I haven't missed the pace by much and I feel really strong. I've kept up with my increased stretching and I can really feel the difference it's making. I've cut back the frequency of my runs on the suggestion of a friend of mine who said that even though it feels good to run extra miles, the program that I'm using is pretty intense alone.

This week I'll still add an extra run when I run the Miles of Mooresville runs. I ran this last year and I'm really looking forward to it again. It's 3 timed runs in downtown Mooresville. A 1-mile run, 2-mile run and a 3-mile run. The course isn't flat. It starts down a slight decline, then begins a slow decline, then a nice downhill, but then you climb to the end. The course is the same for all 3 races, you just do more loops for the second two. It's not bad, but when you add the extreme temperatures, it's tough.

My strategy, if you want to call it that, is to focus on the first two races for a total speed workout of 3 miles. I plan to make the most of the downhills to get my speed up. The 3-mile I'll run as a cool down. Last year my July 1-mile time was 7:51 and 8:06 in August. My 2-mile time in July was 17:07 (8:34 pace) and 17:20 (8:40 pace) in August. I didn't run the June races last year. I was fighting plantar fasciitis last summer and I remember that did bother me during these races. So did the heat! It will be interesting to see what my times are this year. My plantar isn't completely healed but does feel much better.

I don't know what running Friday night is going to do to my time Saturday morning. I thought about postponing my long run to Sunday morning but then that would mean running my long run and then my speed workout back to back. I think this will be good practice for H2C. I hope so anyway!