61 Days Until Race Day

 I missed another post yesterday, so I guess it's safe to say that I have not fully committed to blogging every day. (Haha).

To catch up, yesterday's run was rough! I set out to do Thursday's missed tempo run (10 miles total, 8 miles of tempo), and my body was not feeling it at all. My warmup mile was fine, and my first tempo mile was decent, but then the wheels fell off. Mentally and physically I wasn't feeling it, so I took a walking break and regrouped. Since I needed to do 8 miles for my Waybetter Half Marathon Trainer, I decided to do 8 miles and count it for last Monday's easy 5 miles that I needed to make up. My overall pace of 13:27 min/mile was slower than prescribed for an easy run, but the three extra miles evened it out in my brain.

I am pleased to report that today's run, 7 miles easy, went much better. The prescribed pace is 12:05-12:41, and I averaged 11:57...just a little fast, but within reason. Being back in flat Baton Rouge probably helped, and I didn't eat as much nonsense today as I have been the last few days. ("As much nonsense" is highly subjective...I had a McDonald's meal with large fries and a Coke for lunch, and then I ate some of Scooter's chicken nuggets.) Maybe I'll have a short reprieve from ridiculous eating before king cake season begins.

I remain three workouts behind, and two of those are double-digit workouts (weekend long run and Thursday tempo run). I think I need to get at least one of those in before I attempt tomorrow's prescribed speed workout. Taking three extra rest days isn't exactly building the cumulative fatigue that is integral to the Hansons Marathon Plan. So, double-digit miles, and maybe double workouts should happen tomorrow. We'll see if they actually do.

Some other exciting news is that my medal from the Trans-Texas Virtual Run arrived while we were away! I ran/walked more than 879 miles between July 1 and December 31, which is enough to get across Texas on the route identified by the fine folks at Trail Racing Over Texas. I really like this medal but don't know what to do with it.

Something that made today great: On our way back from Ruston, Richard, Scooter, and I had a tailgate picnic at McDonald's.

Time I woke up: 10:40 am