Ok, as promised at the end of my last post, here is what I am planning between now and the 50 miler next February. As I will be posting this to fb and I get more comments on my posts there than on this site, please feel free to offer suggestions of other runs/races I should consider that are not included on either site.
So, the first thing I have to do is finish my 4 marathons in 4 months. The final marathon in this journey will be
Feb. 19 which is now 24 days away. This will be an interesting marathon because it is the first one I will be repeating. Every other marathon I have done was done for the first time. I'm hoping my little remembered knowledge of the course will help. One thing I am definitely not looking forward to is the hills. Being from San Antonio, I used to get plenty of training in on hills and loved them. They always gave me an edge over my competition in races. Unfortunately, after moving to college station, I realized that it is COMPLETELY flat here. I have not been able to find one good hill to train on. Austin being known as a hilly course, which it is, is not going to be a good thing having not been able to train on hills (not that I'm training much anyways).
After the marathon, I plan to come back and run 2 5Ks 2 weeks later. One is supporting a pro-life organization on March 3 and the other is a race I want to try and win on March 4. I plan to use the first one to gauge where I am on my pace. I know how I used to run a 5K, but it's been over 2 years since I've run one and I'm not used to racing fast. I'll probably put in some time on the track before my marathon to strengthen my legs for the marathon and get some speed for the 5Ks.
On June 25, I will begin my training for my next marathon and the 50 miler which is the end of all this and the beginning of my road into ultra running. I will be running the Bryan/College Station Marathon on December 4 with the help of my high school coach. He says I should be able to run a 2:45. I say he's insane (sorry coach if you ever read this). But, he's never steered me wrong before so I'll listen to what he says and do what I'm told. After that marathon, I will have two months to recover and prepare for the 50 miler. I will have to put in at least one 30 mile training run at some point, if not multiple runs of at least this length.
As for between the 2 5Ks at the beginning of March and the beginning of training in June, I don't have any specific plans. I am looking for runs that would be fun to do and hope to find a few more 5Ks to throw in there. I really miss the speed and tactics of a real race (it's a little hard to race a marathon when you are still trying to figure out why you continue to subject yourself to the pain). If anyone knows of any 5Ks nearby or any interesting runs they would suggest running, please let me know. I'd love to take a look into them and see what I can do.
God bless each and everyone of you who reads this. May He watch over you and protect you in all that you do.
FYI....a lot of organizations (especially sororities and frats) put on 5ks here in town...it probably wouldn't be too hard to find some more both this spring and in the fall. granted, i don't know for sure....i don't run ;) ~Emily
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