Red Mile...

Good morning!  Hope you are well.  Now that move-in is over and training for our staff is over I hope to be able to blog.  August has been great and I'm very proud of our staff.  Running has been going well too.  I've been able to put in the miles and I'm now just 11 weeks from the Monumental Marathon. 

This week I started what I call marathon specific training:  training many miles at the pace I hope to run.  The two major sessions I'll do in addition to my normal runs are tempo runs (running continually at race pace for a few miles) and mile repeats (running at marathon pace for X number of miles with little rest in between).  My goal race pace is about 6 minutes a mile--which is brisk.  On Monday I ran a 4 mile tempo run and averaged 5:55/mile for 23:40 for 4 miles.  Today I ran what I'm calling the Red Mile Workout!  It's running a mile at race pace with a one minute rest in between each mile.  Today I ran 10 of them.  I was not sure how it would go, but here is how I fared:

5:55, 5:39, 5:55, 5:47, 6:00, 5:48, 6:00, 5:50, 5:56, 5:52

I was very happy to hit every single one at 6 minutes or better.  I do need to work on getting the miles a bit closer.  But...the odd miles were uphill and the even miles were downhill so that accounts for much of the variance.  All in all, this was a very successful workout.

I have to be honest.  This goal of trying to run a 2:39 or better marathon time scares me.  It really does.  I've run a 2:48 and that was great, but it was well within my capability.  This 2:39 would be such an accomplishment, it would push my limits, and it requires such tough effort.  Basically, I'm spending 6 months training just for one race.  As I've thought about this goal I have thought about readjusting it.  But...I know deep down I can do it if I push myself, if I sacrifice, if I'm mentally tough.  And...shouldn't a goal that is worth something to you scare you a bit?  If it does not scare you just a bit, then maybe the goal is not enough?  In my life, I've not regretted much.  The only thing I ever regretted was being too scared to walk on the IU Cross Country Team.  I was invited, but I was afraid of failing and chose not to do it.  That has truly been my only running regret.  And now...as I have set this ambitious goal I'm once again feeling that way...just a bit scared.  This time, though, I plan to fight for it, to sweat for it, to gut it out, and to mentally commit to the goal.  At the end of the day, I'd rather go 100% after something rather than to go 90% and reach it easily.  The Red Mile will help me get there!

Thanks to those of you who read my blog.  Set a goal today that scares you just a bit and happy running to you...