This past Friday I did my long run to prepare for Providence.  As usual I was anxious about it during the week prior.  I had been under a lot of pressure with work, my son had a stomach bug over the weekend, my daughter had one on Wednesday and I wasn’t feeling all that great either.  I had only run on Monday and didn’t have any gas in my tank to consider going for a run on Wednesday considering how crappy I felt.  And I NEVER skip a run.  I knew that in order to make it out for my run Friday I had to just suck it up and take care of myself.  I had a great night sleep the night before my run and that was a savior for me.

The morning of my run was beautiful.  I got the kids off to school and then hit the road.  It was 45 degrees with wind but the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the spring birds were out.  I was determined to have a positive, good run.

Jeff’s training plan was to do 15/30 intervals.  I walked the entire first mile, then started my intervals.  I had set my timer to 30/1:00 intervals.  I did that for the first 4 miles.  My endomondo tracker was stating that with my pace it would take me 5 hours to finish.  I started to worry because I had to get back home in time to pick up Adrienne from school.  So I changed my timer to 30/45.  My pace was pretty quick considering it was a long run, but I was feeling very fresh.  It was good that I had those days off prior to my run.  I really needed them.

My total run took me 4 hours 29 minutes.  I was happy with that time, and my plan for the marathon is to do a 5:30 marathon, which is a big stretch for me.  My route ended with some hills at the end, but I pushed through them despite tired legs so I think if I push at the end of the race to get some speed I may make my goal.

I did experience some pain in my hamstring behind my knee that night which concerned me.  So I used ice, heat and tylenol to keep it at bay and so far so good.  I do NOT want to repeat physical therapy again like last year.  I know I had it because I pushed faster for this long run.  In my next 2 long runs I will make arrangements to have Adrienne picked up from school so I can continue using the pace and intervals that Jeff has written for me.