Longest Run Since October 22

Yesterday afternoon Jason and I got through 12 miles which is our longest run since the Chicago Marathon. We did a 10 mile run a couple of weeks ago, but mostly our distances have been 8,9 7 and so on. I have really been missing running longer miles, but I think my legs are extremly happy (or were until this morning) that I have given them a bit of a break before the onset of marathon training starts.

We drove over to the lakefront, near the totem pole, around 2:30 in the afternoon yesterday. The temps were in the mid 40s so we were back to shorts and two long sleeve tops on. This might have been a bad choice for the first half because the wind was a bit strong out of the south, but in the end it was a fine decision because I warmed up with no problems. We started off somewhat slower with paces around 9min/mile, I had Garmin go CRAZY around mile 2 and completly lost the signal. I have no idea what that was about but I just stood still for about 30 seconds and it got a signal back that stuck for the rest of the run. It was way nice to run on the path because there was no ice or slush like there is on the sidewalks....well at least until we got to Oak St. Beach. Whitney wasn't kidding when she said it was covered in ice. Like Covered covered...like a couple of inches thick and solid. We had to walk around this part because I could not get a grip on pavement and didn't want to risk falling because I was too stupid to just walk through it. We kept on going south until about Buckingham Fountain and then headed back.

All of the miles (from what I remember) where all around 8:30 minutes aside from icyville at Oak St. This was a great run, no pain and no troubles just one foot in front of the other. Considering Jason, Lisa (the Cousin) and I split 3 bottles of wine on Saturday night I am even more impressed that this run was gotten through with ease. We did 31 miles total for the week which is also our highest mileage sice the marathon.

Last week put us in perfect position to start our marathon training program for Sarasota. The race is on March 4th and we are doing a 12 week program Pfitz style. This training cycle we will also be playing volleyball on Monday's and Fridays so we should be lean mean, runinng, volleying machines. We are also going to try and add in weight training on Wednesday evenings.

This week plan is 35 miles like this :

Monday : Volleyball + (maybe) ab work
Tuesday : 8mi w/10x100m
Wednesday : Weight lifting
Thursday : 9 miles general aerobically
Friday : Volleyball +ab work
Saturday : 5 miles recovery
Sunday : 13 miles Medium Long Run