Huge post about a geeky running question

Last night I had class. Technology has made huge strides in student comfort since I was an undergrad.

 I did get a little distracted at times, as would most likely happen in a traditional class.

 But, mostly, I had to ignore the ipod, because you can get called on. As you can see in the first picture though, I got all the laundry folded while achieving higher learning simultaneously. Eric's still working on putting his portion away.

After my brain was sufficiently stimulated, it was time for Biggest Loser.  Anna Kournikova - pathetic replacement for Jillian.  She cried more than the contestants. We all know I have a love affair with Jillian going on, so it's likely I wouldn't have been happy with any replacement, but Anna was the bottle of the barrel.

 

The new hot black guy trainer makes up for it though. I tried to learn his name for the whole two hours, but failed.

Google Images didn't have any pictures of him alone, probably because no one else can pronounce his name either.

 Thursday morning is tempo run time. I was up at 4:30, at Lily's at 5, and running by about 5:03. 

We are a true dynamic duo, because she would never get up at run at 5am alone, and I would never push myself that hard alone. This girl is an amazing tempo run pacer, she practically killed me on the six fast miles. This run felt very challenging. My legs almost never hurt while I'm running. They may  get sore and tired as I get up there in mileage, but this was my muscles were screaming by the second tempo mile. We hit some hills, not as bad as my neighborhood, but the long, sneaky, slight incline kind. When we stopped at a traffic light around 3.5 tempo miles in, Lily asked how I was feeling and I told her I didn't think I could keep the pace up. She told me I could, and off we went, and I kept up. Partially it was because I had no idea where we were and it was dark out, but isn't it amazing how someone telling you that you can do something makes such a difference? Even though I doubted it, just having her tell me I could do it changed my whole outlook. I know we've said it a million times, but running is so mental.

After the run, we were a little stiff.

And SOAKED. We all know I'm slow on the uptake, and especially so at 5am without coffee. So on our warmup mile, I wondered why my chest hurt and thought maybe I was having an asthma attack. Turns out the humidity was around 90%.

Wringing the sweat out of my shirt and skirt is sexy

When I got to work, I was yet again confused by the fact that my butt was wet. Like, not damp, my the back of my skirt was noticeably soaked. Finally I realized it was because my sweat soaked my car seat on the drive home from our run, and then soaked my work clothes when I drove to work. Excellent. 

Nonrunners - this may be a good place to exit this post. Thanks for reading!

So, back to that "running is mental" thing, I have a question for my fellow runners. This Saturday is the Baltimore Marathon supported course run.  The running store that helps put on the marathon puts out water stops, complete with Gus, porto-potties, and hands out direction sheets, so you can do your last long run on the actual marathon course. This is a big deal, because there are some parts of the marathon that you really can't run on without risking getting shot or ending your run addicted to heroine. You truly see the city in this race. Last year there were thousands of runners, and we got cheered on because people thought it was the actual race. This year we are even getting bibs! Did I mention all this is free, they just request small donations?

As most people probably are, I'm using this as a dry run for the race, in terms of outfit, nutrition, hydration, etc. My latest obsession, Kristy, has me wondering if I should use it as a practice for marathon pace. Kristy writes an amazingly inspiring, informative blog that chronicles her hard won recent Boston Marathon qualifying time. She does most of her long runs at marathon pace. 

I debated admitting this on the blog, because I'm afraid I won't be able to do it, but since I signed up for Baltimore I had set my ultimate, all the stars align goal to have a 9:30 marathon pace. But, with the fifty miler coming up, I haven't been training at that pace. Most of my long runs are LSD, more like 10-10:30 pace, which is fine, but my focus has been on adding mileage to prepare for an ultramarathon, not speed. I've done speedwork, but I haven't put the effort into it that I would have if the marathon was my key race.

Despite this, being inspired by Kristy, I want to try for a 9:30 pace on Saturday, for 22 miles. I'm asking if it seems reasonable because it means that I'm probably ditching my friend Jill, and running alone, which is kind of a big deal for me. (We already talked and she's fine with it, although I think she could do that pace!). Also, I don't want to go out at that pace and then be dying at the end of the run because I'm used to 10 minute miles. 

So my question is, should I try for marathon pace, or just continue my LSD runs that I've been doing throughout my training, and save the MP running for the next training plan?

And if you are still reading, you get a gold star. I really hope Kristy herself reads this and gives me an advice. It's like she's a celebrity to me now.