training update, motivation, planning ahead

10 miles.

1 month ago if you told me I'd plan to and succeed at running 10 miles, I may have laughed at you. Not because I was capable, but because my training had faltered and I was having issues even getting out for 3 miles, let alone 6+.

I'm on target for distance, but pace has definitely slowed back down to about an 11 minute mile. I'm not loving the slowed pace, but I have been concentrating on making those runs progressively harder with the distance climbed. During my half last year my climb was 891 feet. Over the past 3 weeks my long runs have been 449 ft, 557 ft and then 501 ft. Probably helps explain the slower pace. Today I threw in some trails for good measure as this will be a trail half I'm doing.

Today's motivation came not from music but from an audiobook. I've been reading a lot online (some ... believe it or not, fan fiction for some shows I watch. Never really imagined myself as the fan fiction reading type. From what I've read though it makes me feel quite normal for all of the imaginary tales i send characters on outside of the show or book when I'm trying to fall asleep) and also been working on some other books sitting in my queue. All the fan fic got me in the mood for a good old fashioned crime novel (I read more historical fiction and non-fiction as of late) so I started an audiobook version of Patricia Cornwell "Scarpetta". I've been following her series since probably 8th grade so it was rather comforting to settle into something familiar. I'm about a quarter of the way done now between the run and then listening several times throughout the day. It was just what I needed for my run. Instead of focusing on the song and whether it pepped me up or the inevitable commercial breaks on Pandora, I got the soothing rhythm of a book. It's not ideal for shorter runs, but when you know you've got nearly 2 hours of running ahead of you, it was quite helpful.

Also motivating: chalk messages left for other runners. There must have been a 5K or some kind of fun run event at that park on Saturday because there were all sorts of messages of encouragement directed at the runners. When I was struggling to get going and then when I was in that hard final mile, seeing those messages was just what I needed. Whoever did it did not intend it for me, but it was fun pretend someone was cheering me on.

I'm 20 days out. This means 1 more long run - aiming for 11-11.5 miles and then something I've never tried: tapering. The weekend before I'm planning to instead hit the trails and work on a short but challenging hill workout.  I will do some quick research on tapering but right now I think I'm onto the right idea.
20 days seems so far away yet I know its really not.

My time last year was around 2 hr 36 min. This year my goal is 2 hr 30 min. No miracles, but hopefully less walking than occurred last year!