Peak Week

Today was the beginning of my peak week of training for my first marathon.  Thought I'd start a blog because I plan on having lots of running adventures and I wanted to put all my stories in one place where people can go if they want to read, or not go if they don't!

So anyway, beginning of Peak Week.  Next week begins my taper.  It has been cooler here for the last week or so.  My pace during my regular weekly runs has improved, which I'm taking as very positive.  It's been a struggle to run in the heat and humidity this summer and I've been wondering for the last several weeks if my planned race pace is too ambitious. 

Being that this is my first marathon, I really don't have anything to go by, goal-wise.  Everything I read says my goal for the first one should be just to finish.  Well, I know I'm going to finish, barring anything catastrophic happening.  So my time goal is sub-4 hours.  Big goal, actually.  There.  Now it's out in the open, for the public to read.  No taking it back now.  Of course, nobody will probably read this, so maybe it doesn't matter!  LOL

Okay, so today was a 5 mile run.  Cool, super windy.  Like, 27 mph windy.  But pace was pretty comfortable, 48:40 minutes.  Not bad after my long run this weekend.  It was only supposed to be 12 miles, but it turned into 15 due to a wrong turn.  It was an unfamiliar area, and it was dark, and I got frustrated and started running faster, and the last five miles of that run were at race pace.  (oops)  So I was pretty sore yesterday from that effort, and today my quads were a little sore, still.  But today's run was to shake out the kinks and get the lactic acid out and tomorrow's 8 miles should be pain-free, at least. 

My second 20-miler is Sunday.  By the end of this week, I will have a 43-mile week.